Mayans Were Kidding, End of World Was Error. Sorry about that--Not.

"But of course, dahling. There never was an end of the world plot, a calendar, or even prediction. Nevah! I tell you, all those simpletons. Get rid of the white robed, white bearded guy with that tattered sign, he's cluttering the footpath."  The voice was husky, low and sensual.  It emerged somewhere between feather boa and an astounding amount of silk charmeuse, draped over a chaise lounge, just enough in the weak sunlight to make her silvery curls glow like moonlight over the Mediterranean.

She actually said it as "foooot-paahthhh".

But that was Crazy Aunt Eleanor.  I love Crazy Aunt Eleanor.  No relation to Crazy Uncle Franklin, and still not found in any White House gallery.   But she should be.  She's the original American free spirit, which is fun, and not too dangerous.  Except when her ideas cut one down to size.  Or, when she discusses fake patriots.

She reads Reuters, and my friends often still read Huffington Post. So, here's the link...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/mayans-never-predicted-world-to-end_n_1126033.html

Crazy Aunt aside, all the hoopla was just because they ran out of calculations.  Sort of the Millenia's old version of the battery died in the calculator.   And, boy oh boy, did we fall for that one. 

Now, we aren't too sure about the unknown planet, or the asteroid, or even the possiblity of many and sundry sattellites crashing in and setting off WWIII, while cooler heads try to show its space junk, not the crazy --- (insert name of country here)---.   Make sure Al Haig isn't creeping about, trying to wrest control of the White House from whatever occupant might be napping at the time.  While you're at it, keep the button hungry fingers away from the football.  Not the Super Bowl one, but the one that should be next to the leader of what remains of the free world, and which leader is not an alum of Goldman Sachs.

In the meantime, relish in this.  We have been granted time.  We have been given hope and time enough to rid ourselves of technocrats intent on keeping the Fascism alive.  After all, the Nazi's didn't lose WWII, they just moved, one paper clip at a time, to a new venue.  We have governments so entangled with bankers and corporate leaders that the two have become one, and the Fascia at the Rostrum of the House is naught but a cruel, demonstrative joke.  I'm still looking for the name of the guy that thought Fascia were a good idea right there in the Well.  It's been our downfall ever since.

Well, that and the bankers that own the government.

And, as you're enjoying the meantime, have a martooni, shaken not stirred.  It makes a weaker drink, but you have more of them in the course of an evening without getting so drunk that you confuse the balding septuagenarian for James Bond.

Spice up the meantime, that extra time you've gained.  Get yourself onto a letter writing campaign, and demand that we the People get our fair share of our government working for us, and not for the politicians, of the politicians, and with the corporatists.  Demand the Technocrats in Europe give the people honest elections.  Demand our leaders stop criticizing others, like Russia, and fix our own stolen election syndrome.

Demand of all political parties, that they put up the very best people, not the most monied, not the most made, not the most controllable by the corporatists.   Do we really think that our nation has had the very best leaders over the past 50 years?  Really?

Get rid of those that are riding on the coattails of leaders who blithely proclaim that "if the American people knew what the Bush family had done to the US, we'd be run out of town on a rail."  That was George HW Bush to Sarah McClendon.  There are several quotes, but that is the one I remember best.

Finally, as you are relishing in the longer meantime you now have, go out and get yourself going on a project that might take more than a year to complete.  Like college.  Like learning the piano.  Like learning how to draw.  Really.  Then hug a kid, and think of this.  I can give a prayer of thanks, for the time, the gift of  time.  The world is not ending.  I can plant a tree, love a child and enjoy the faith that only if I do all the things needed to make this a better world will having the world hang on beyond 2012, will that extra time mean anything at all.

Why hasn't anyone asked this question?

When, back in those nearly dark ages of long, long ago--when we were all either a lot younger or a lot less jaded, and the money seemed endless just as the stuff to spend money on seemed to be so necessary, there was lots of talk about American Exceptionalism. We can spend, we can spend, we can spend. And we did.

Yet we didn't ask one good question.

Then, administrations came and went. Republicans such as Reagan preached and speeched on and on about 'small government' and 'conservative' values. Democrats such as Clinton made the same speeches and balanced the budget. For a few months.

Even before that recent history, there were clouds in the whole budget issue. The biggest was never noticed. The question was never asked.

We went to war against a tactic, based upon an attack never adequately investigated, killing or maiming millions.

We bailed out the brightest guys in the room. We spent money on a program that Hank Paulson wrote on a piece of legal paper, striking a 'big number' because he knew he needed a lot of money to shift fast and $700 Billion seemed to be a nice figure.

We never asked the question.

We bemoaned 'entitlements' for grandma, education costs for kids, law enforcement toys for police that now look like Darth Vader's Raiders. Money, money, money.

We sent $8 Billion to other countries. Or was that $8 Trillion?* (I know, a B(m)illion here a B(m)illion there, pretty soon you're talking real money -- thanks Ike for the image.)

And, we never asked.

We shifted dollars from column A to column B so that Too Big to Fail wouldn't, well, fail. Again, no question.

Now, we hear that if we honor the promises made to people that paid good hard earned money into things, like pensions and Social Security, which is funded by those payments into Social Security, that Social Security won't have our own money available to pay us back on the money we put in in the first place. And, still the silence is deafening.

Here's the question.

Why didn't anyone ask where the money was coming from to bail out this, fund that war, prop up that banking industry filled with Too Big to Fail? And if it was taken from the accounts funded by workers, why aren't the people that shifted the money rotting in jail for stealing from one trust account to fund a speculative venture like propping up Too Big To Fail?

And, while we're at it, why are we fighting so many wars when no one is attacking us at home? Why don't we stay at home and take care of ourselves for a change? It's less expensive, and would bring a lot more peace to so many countries? Like our own.

But, when all those 'conservatives' were hailing their 'conservative' credentials, spouting off about small government as government doubled in size, just in this Century, why didn't anyone ask how we were going to pay for it, and if we were going to take away the contracted benefits we paid for, why aren't we getting a bailout for us. The taxpayers. The FICA funders. Get the money for the banks from the banks. they have lots of it, because they are too big to fail, and that means they have money. Leave the pittance for the little guys alone, and stop telling us you've stolen it, or plan to do so. Enough.

If we're going to fight wars, how about one against the tactic known as robbery?

Inquiring minds, and all that.


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* http://rt.com/usa/news/fed-trillion-reserve-bailout-401/

As for size of government, budgets balancing and all that, a simple tour of the Google will bring up more links than you'll ever want to review. Honest.