Obama planning Bush show trials for summer entertainment

I know this is an economy-oriented blog, and believe me I will get there in just a moment. But there is something going on that's starting to feel (once again!) like the magician telling us to 'look over here' while the heart of the trick is going on somewhere else.

Diversion tactics. That's how the magician awes and amazes us. That's how the military gains the element of surprise. And that's how governments, like ancient Rome, diverted the population from their misery (unemployment, hunger, homelessness, etc.) by providing them with such riveting entertainment that everything else just fades into the background.

The Circus Maximus and the Coliseum were scenes of violent and bloody competition. Let's face it: blood sells...gore sells. That's why high-schoolers part with their allowances to pack the theaters and get chills and goosebumps watching the latest mayhem and mutilation on the silver screen. That's why traffic slows down at the scene of an accident so that the passersby can catch a better glimpse of the destruction.

Well it appears that the government is gearing up to give us their version of the Circus Maximus...their version of 'Nightmare on Elm Street'.

What is this spectacle that they have in store for us, you ask? Why the 'Show Trials of the Bush Administration' of course (McCarthy, you piker - you had nothing on these guys.).

I started to suspect it when President Obama made his sudden 180 degree turn on whether or not to pursue the previous administration on 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. Now whether you believe that what was done was torture or not can be argued by ethicists, lawyers, clergy and politicians from now until doomsday (and believe me it probably will). But this sudden policy change, especially coupled with the administration's sudden decision to release the photos of mistreatment of war prisoners to the ACLU got me to thinking.

Why was this happening now? Let's face it. Nothing riles up the population like pictures of 'atrocities'. You can talk about it. You can read about it. But once you actually see it, it engenders such an emotional response that all other reactions pale by comparison. These pictures are due to be released sometime in May and, believe me, there will be a huge public reaction, no matter how bad or how tame they are.

But the timing here seemed a little odd. To get the greatest bang for the buck (politically speaking) something like this should be done right before an election. The administration could have easily continued the legal battle to stretch this out until closer to election season, and politically it would seem to have been far more advantageous to be smearing the competition right before it was time for Americans go to the polls.

Now you can argue that Obama is such an ethical and moral man that he just couldn't, in good conscience, keep this stuff under wraps any longer. But he is also a politician -- a really good politician. He's even a Chicago politician, and believe me he didn't come up through the political ranks in Chicago without learning how to make political hay out of a scandal. 'Never let a good crisis go to waste.' Seems I've heard that somewhere before.

So there had to be something even more important that would be happening even sooner in order to urge the administration into action. What could possibly top an election in importance in the mind of a politician? It would have to be something REALLY big. Something HUGE,.

Could it be the revelation of the government's Mafia tactics in bullying banks into taking TARP money or coercing them into committing fraud like Bank of America? Naw! That could all be blamed on Hank Paulson (who was part of the Bush administration, mind you), even though some of the other key players in this scheme, like Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner, are still active in the government. Nope that couldn't be it. It must be something bigger.

But what could be bigger? Let's look at the government's rhetoric about the economy. Right after the inauguration it was all gloom and doom. We had to act in order to avert a catastrophe. Then we pumped trillions of dollars of taxpayer money into the financial sector to fix the problem. After that, everything was starting to look up. Things were getting better. Consumer confidence started to improve as soon as the government-speak started to veer away from the daily drumbeat of negativism. And that was good. But it wasn't good enough.

In spite of all the manufactured good news. In spite of all the cheerleading in the media and the near-canonization of the President for his performance during his first 100 days in office, the fundamentals of the economy are getting worse -- much worse.

The results of the bank stress tests will be coming out in May (Coincidence? I think not.). And in spite of the fact that the government will massage and reconfigure them in order to sugar-coat the implications, the results are bad. Really bad. The exposure in credit defaults and foreclosures is so huge that even changing the accounting rules to repeal 'mark-to-market' wasn't enough to cover it up. In addition it seems that massive fraud in the TARP program itself is beginning to come to light.

Add to that, GM and Chrysler are both going bankrupt (There! I've said it! The 'B' word). And no matter how the bankruptcy terms are worked out (looks like the taxpayers are going to pay for all of Chrysler's retirement and medical plans -- Why am I not feeling good about this?) it will mean massive layoffs. GM is already disclosing that they will idle almost all their plants for over two months this summer. And this is in addition to the record unemployment levels we are already seeing. Laid off workers are now taking, on average, over six months to find a new job, and that number is rising.

On top of all this, mortgage defaults (including Prime and Alt-A -- not just those nasty Sub-Primes that caused all the trouble in the first place) have doubled, so now people will not only be out of work, but homeless as well.

What we have is a confluence of events that will collide sometime this summer: banking crisis, massive unemployment and increased losses of homes, with not enough people to buy the foreclosures and not enough lending to finance the purchases. Neighborhoods will start to decay, and people will become angrier and angrier. It will be ugly. And it will be hot. And all it would take is a match to set off the powder keg.

We know what happens when people don't have enough work and don't have enough money. Look at France: 'Boss-nappings', strikes, sabotage of utilities, riots. And France is not alone. Germany is already bracing for unrest during the summer because of the predicted further deterioration of their banking system and their economy.

But what about the United State? Will we have unrest? Will we have riots? No! Of course not! Because we'll have bread and circuses. Roll out those show trials, and let the games begin!

These trials are planned to be even bigger than the O.J. trial. Even bigger than the Martyrs versus the Lions. Blood destruction and mayhem galore, sprinkled liberally with intrigue, deceit and corruption. It's the stuff of dreams (or nightmares) depending on your point of view. This heady mix should keep the population mesmerized for months, or at least long enough to get us through those risky dog days of summer.

At least that's what the government is hoping. We'll just have to see how well it works.

Watch the strange Swine Flu outbreak...perfect timing to bring in his Universal Health Care plans...people will be demanding it...and he will gladly oblige. Death count up to 60...Avianflutalk.com updated at 3:00 EST.

The 1918 Pandemic had a kill rate of .05...this one is sitting at .07. I think I remember that right, if not...oh heck shoot me and put me out of my misery!!!

“The 1918 Pandemic had a kill rate of .05...this one is sitting at .07. I think I remember that right, if not...oh heck shoot me and put me out of my misery!!!”

I read a thorough book about it and I pray we don’t have another one. God we have had enough and we have enough obstacles right now.

God we have had enough and we have enough obstacles right now.
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I know....unfortunately I fear God will take us to our knees with a whole lot more seriousness than the emotional flash fire after 9/11. We learned nothing. This country has got to repent and turn around. If not then He will have to dig up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize...don’t think that is gonna happen.

But what could be bigger?

His birth certificate?

This is nothing but wagging a different dog, a smokescreen for whatever is next, designed to keep the cameras from being called to show something we all do not want while it is still being implemented and vulnerable. Once it is a fait accomplit, there will be no stopping it.

I expect he will be consolidating his private army and setting up to declare martial law as soon as he can, under the cover of yet more "Bush's fault".

this will present an opportunity for the GOP, to 'out' the behind-the-smokscreen processes, but if they fail to get the word out in a credible manner (they'll be painted as partisan attacks, or even 'racism'), the GOP will be done.

If the GOP fails to ensure the blame for the entire economic mess is laid at the feet of those who required the practices which led to it and subverted the oversight which could have mitigated it, it will have lost an opportunity to continue as a viable and meaningful political entity.

In for a penny, in for a pound. If someone is going to get prosecuted for waterboarding, might as well just skin 'em slowly and get it over with as make them think they are drowning.

We know this has diddley squat to do with "Bush" even though they will use the residual 'bush-hate' to sell it. At one level, it is about dhimmitude to the UN and international courts, and at another, pulling the guts out of our intelligence extraction capability in the future.

The unintended consequence, of course, is that the information believed to be possessed would have to be more forcibly extracted and the remains disposed of.

'Outsourcing' remains an option as well, and although imperfect, may be the only option.

Like so many other aspects of life in which timely and decisive action is required to be effective (combat arms, law enforcement, self-defense), this whole charade is designed to get the people who perform these tasks to hesitate, to act indecisively, in a venue where he who hesitates is lost.

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