Hi folks! We here at Debtor’s Prison are pleased to introduce Rebecca Smith who has been kind enough to write a guest column.  We are impressed with Rebecca’s work and hope she will write for us again.

REBECCA SMITH

The latest chapter of a painful story that began years ago was the debt fight that continued in the capital of the nation and the ensuing credit downgrade by the Standard & Poor’s.  In the last decade, the banks, consumers and the homeowners became bloated with too much leverage or borrowed a huge amount of money and this resulted in a drastic shrinkage of credit throughout the entire economy, a particular phenomenon that is financially known as ‘deleveraging’. Apart from the big picture, the consumers too were worried about the ways in which they can seek debt relief so as to stay out of the debt cycle.

The present situation of the US is nothing new and the government has been grappling with such issues and has also been throwing billions to dollars to provide a quick cure from such problems. Even after continuous meetings and steps taken to assess and improve the current state of the US economy, there has been no positive result that is noticeable. Though the labor market reports were slightly positive in the month of July and August, 2011, yet there has been no such noticeable increase in the growth of jobs within the market that could alleviate the spurring unemployment level. Gut-wrenching market plunges, accompanied by multiple negative aspects of the economy show that the economy is losing steam. Despite all such nerve-wracking events within the US economy, very few expect the policymakers to reveal some new stimulus plans to rejuvenate the lost shine of the nation.

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Ugh. I feel like I am the only person who still posts around here. That is one of the problems with a blog like this – everyone thinks someone else will pick up the slack. But on to the point at hand.

When you’re black one of the difficult things about dealing with non-black people (Asians, South Asians and “mixed” people are also notorious for this) is figuring out which ones are sheltered/ignorant/slow and which ones purposefully propagate falsehoods in order to serve their own self-interest.

Take the Internet meme where the black woman thinks she doesn’t have to pay her mortgage because Obama is President. The first non-black thinks this is a representation of a large percentage of blacks. The second circulates it to perpetuate that type of nonsense and add to the plethora of material non-black children are exposed to in order to condition them to think that black = inferior. After all, the schools have been almost desegregated for almost a generation now and look who is in the White House?

But I digress. Drum roll please…the reason black unemployment is still so high is discrimination. Yes! Believe it or not folks holding all other factors from education to industry constant there is a much higher unemployment index for blacks and it’s discrimination.

But Alpha Man, shouldn’t a black President help, just a little?
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In my last post I wrote that a lot was going on that might make it seem like on surface progress of some kind was being made.  Unfortunately this optimism doesn’t hold up to any kind of rigorous analysis.  It’s like if you’re trying to get somewhere and you don’t know where it is all the while you’re running out of gas.  So you stop.  After all, what’s the point of continuing driving when you have no gas and don’t know where you’re going?  So you send your passenger out to explore while you guard the car and after awhile they come back and say there is a gas station two miles up the road.  Great.  But you’ve still got pay for that gas, and you still don’t know where you are going.  That’s kind of like what is going on here.

What we have here, or essentially what we are witnessing, is the solidification of the student debt “scam” as just one of those those unjust facts of life.  Think of it as Republicans only protecting the interests of the rich or wanting to cut any sort of health care safety net.  Republicans have been the same in that respect for 40 years AND WE KNOW THIS.  They still get elected and raise money the same way.  Every now and then when something becomes OUTRAGEOUS there’s a small re-adjustment but nothing FUNDAMENTALLY changes.

There are several reasons for this.  Read on for the discussion

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Yep.  Even at this late date I could give a shit.  So the Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Partiers/People of hereditary privilege have found yet another way to trip up this President.  But what have we REALLY learned about the National Debt? Throughout this entire non-newsworthy debacle?

1) Congress has always overwhelming voted to raise the debt ceiling.

Why? Because it’s necessary.  Why aren’t they doing it now?  Let’s see…what major thing about Washington, the White House specifically, is different? No, it’s not that it’s a black President, there is just something magical about the number $14 trillion.  That’s just the natural limit for a country’s indebtedness.

2) Rich People are gonna get their money

Get real people.  There isn’t going to be any kind of default.  This is coming out of social security checks for old people and paychecks for our nation’s servicemen.

3) White people love money more than they love feeling superior because they are white

White people have had this choice before.  At the end of the Civil War rich white people could have devoted some of their slaves to the Confederate War effort and possibly saved their racial hierarchy.  But they decided overwhelmingly not to do this.  Robert E. Lee who popular legend would have you believe abhorred slavery, fought his father in-law’s will freeing his slaves because…he wanted money.  And he wanted to lead the Confederate forces because he thought his military career would advance quicker as the George Washington figure of a new country.

All that is to say that white people who make above X amount a year ALWAYS act in their self-interest.  Maybe that is true of all people who make above slave wages, as I have never heard of an Arabian Prince actually committing rather than just simply planning a suicide bombing.

Ugh.  I am tired of writing about this.  It took me 20 damn minutes to figure out how to load the icon that is my signature.  I just wanted to be on the record in late July saying I still don’t care one bit about the National Debt.  It’s a non-issue, like a runny noise is a non-disease.  I don’t care if you can’t find a tissue, or need a tissue for your runny damn nose while I’m sitting in the corner bleeding out.

Ugh.  Why Benito? Why would you save our posts and write yours on your phone?  Is this to punish me for not giving you my old laptop when yours broke? Of course this happens when I send you a post that literally solves the healthcare crisis in our nation.

I was inspired by a pompous windbag who saw my Obama ‘08 sticker (but apparently  not my PENN Medical decal) and decided to lecture me on the pitfalls of Obama’s healthcare platform.  During the rant he recounted everything a doctor has to go through and concluded that he “had no problem with doctor’s salaries.” Thanks, because you know, if it wasn’t ok with you I’d be sending some of that money back.

Part of the answer is easy.  Obama plan (including individual mandate) + public option. Nothing was funnier than hearing this fool rail on about people who use emergency rooms as family practices leaving the rest of us to pay while simultaneously condemning the individual mandate. Idiot.

The next part has to do with the training of doctors.  Basically there are not enough of us and it takes too long. Well, let’s let common sense take a crack at this one.  First we create more doctors by creating more medical schools.  These would be public works, the type that create jobs (but really, whose trying to do that in this economy).  Trust me, the demand on the student side is there.  Second you make a medical education free IF you stop at the primary care level.  If you specialize (which now most doctors do because it’s the only way to pay back the loans they’ve already acquired) then the gift becomes a debt and you pay your way from there.
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I was wondering how long it would take for something ignorant to happen and ruin my thorough enjoyment of all the Bin Laden coverage.  Not surprisingly the ignorance comes from UVa.  If you haven’t heard a black male student wrote a letter about racial profiling, purposefully distributed it to various media outlets and it turned out to be fabricated.  It was an allegory, a teaching moment, or some such crap.  The idiot needs to take a lesson from this blog and write anonymously while making references to fictional characters that are pop-culture icons.  Speaking of which, I saw Mega Man the other day and punched him in the face.  Well, I thought about punching him in the face.

Now law students are a sorry bunch.  They lie all the time and their “honor codes” are a joke.  Particularly at UVa.  If this kid had lied about a hit and run accident or cheated on an exam I wouldn’t have strong feelings about whether he graduated or not.  Sure, he did something awful but find me a law student who hasn’t.  In Philadelphia law students shoot each other.  It’s no big deal.

But what this fool did was inexcusable.  Not because it soiled the reputation of the Charlottesville police.  I’ve been pulled over in Charlottesville for being black.  Same run of the mill crap, certainly not story worthy.  What this kid did was give the bastards who spend 24/7 trying to convince the world that racism doesn’t exist ammo.  I mean did he learn nothing from the Duke Lacrosse case?

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Osama Bin Laden is dead.  Yes he deserved to die.  I hope he burns in hell.  I was elated when I heard the news.  However, when I logged onto facebook most of my ultra-liberal brethren were posting shit quoting Dr. King talking about how they personally took no joy in his death and how it was wrong to do so. I, for once, was outside the ultra-liberal mainstream.  SO three questions come to mind.  First, why do I and my liberal friends disagree? Second, who is right? Third, is this even tangentially related to anything having to do with being in debt?

The first thing that struck me about the Dr. King quote was that he was talking about enemies who directly and repeatedly wronged him and his family.  Most of my liberal friends do not have that relationship with Bin Laden.  They hadn’t lost anyone in the attacks and the ten-year war that followed did not affect their lives in any material way.  They’re liberal, but they’re not self-immolating to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

Second, are they right?  Probably.  I am sure I should not be fantasizing about the first lonesome, hideous bottom-feeding sea creature that might stumble upon a delicious, stinking bag of white-wrapped flesh and manage to use some gruesome appendange to wrest it open.  I know that’s not right.  But I know something about having enemies, about waking up everyday knowing the person (people) responsible for your situation are waking up in relative comfort everyday snickering about what they did to you and hoping they can do it to others like you.

Now I am not saying they are DEFINITELY right.  I believe that killing him and recovering his body was the right (and only right) thing to do.  I also believe that the visceral reaction to the death of a monster is inextricably linked to the burning desire to sacrifice everything for one thing that is sacred.  That is why we risk sacrificing many lives to save one life.  Because a life is sacred.  We do not do this for vengeance, justice or to honor the dead.  We do this because it is who we are.

I tried not to write about it.  I didn’t want to be just another liberal blogger uninentionally calling attention to the “birther” movement and thereby adding legitimacy to it in the subconscious minds of many Americans who vote.  When the White House went above and beyond any legal requirement of any American citizen to do anything (not to mention presidential candidate, not to mention sitting president) and released his long-form birth certificate I patted myself on the back for staying out at least one pointless debate.  And now they want his college records.  And of course the birthers are not satisfied with the long-form birth certificate.

So let’s go over what we know.  Birthers are racist, and not the pseudo-intellectual “there exist some gifted negroes but as a race they are intellectually inferior” but the “there are just some things nobody with mongrel blood should ever, ever do and being president is damn sure one of them.” All Republicans, racist or not, know that birthers are racist and deliberately pander to this group for political points by pretending that the birthers really care where Obama was born not as much what he looks like and who he was born to.  Polls indicate that over half of people who identify themselves as Republicans don’t believe Obama is American or aren’t sure.  Believe it or not, I can live with that.  Or rather, I have to – I’m black in America.

But here’s what makes me angry.  It’s the fact that so many people, with nothing to gain to from this slander and libel against the President, don’t get angry and don’t stand up to make any sort of change.  Case in point: If you haven’t struck up a conversation with an acquaintance or stranger about how absurd this birther thing is, then guess what? Black or white, you’ve failed the racism/self-hatred test. 

Ok, let’s back up.  Raise your hand if you’ve overheard a birther talking on the bus or in a bar sounding all authorative like he’s king shit of fuck mountain?  Yeah all right, all of you.  Now, raise your hand if you’ve EVER heard someone DENOUNCING birtherism loudly and in the same manner? Now put your hand down if you’re at a small liberal arts college North of the Mason Dixon line with no division 1 or division 2 athletics.  Yeah, not a single hand raised.

Look people.  It’s 2011.  We know that progress isn’t guaranteed with the passing of time.  We’ve seen slavery, holocaust, genocide and the like.  It’s not just that we know what our primal demons are like, we also know, as people how extremely cowardly we are.  I mean, you won’t come to the defense of the President of the United States? Your President? Supposedly the most powerful person in the world?  If not then guess what, you’re not coming to the defense of the gay kid who is being bullied.  You’re not coming to the defense of the Hispanic-American who is having his citizenship questioned by an angry mob.  Come on people, we need to start controlling how the masses think.

Oh, you’re one of those “you can’t control how people think” people are you?  Ever heard of advertising? Your deepest most sacred convictions are bought, sold, bundled, divided and sold again every day on Wall Street.  Your very concept of what it means to be American is 80% commercials you’ve watched during Major League Sports.

So read a book, figure out what your convictions are, and PLEASE don’t just STAND UP for them if they get attacked in front of you.  Convictions aren’t to be used for self-defense only.  ADVOCATE for them.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I hate stupid people as much as the next guy.  But you know what I hate even more?  A coward.

No, and let’s face it – neither do you.  You only care about a) the federal budget and the fate of Medicare, Social Security and other programs or b) the inevitability that a united, educated, empathetic middle class will rise up and raise taxes on the privileged few to pay for what makes America great…just as you finally get yours (aka you’re one of the delusional Americans who thinks that they’ll be millionaires are day even though they’re 35 and have never ground 30k in a year) So that’s you and me.  But someone must care about the actual deficit right? Nope. Anyone who says they do is lying to your face.

If you don’t believe me ask yourself why there are so many social riders attached to the budget bill? Why in the wake of record deficits do the same people who demand massive spending and also demand massive tax cuts? Nobody cares about the deficit.  If they did they could have become accountants or economists.

But enough about what I don’t care about.  Here is something I do care about: Healthcare and discouraging militarism.  Obama gave us sweeping Healthcare reform.  Boehner and company want to respond by killing Medicare, a landmark achievement unfortunately overshadowed by Civil Rights (good) and Vietnam (not so good).  The abomination of a budget that seeks to eliminate funding for this (protecting the Health of our own weakest citizens) ironically ramps up defense spending.  I used to think this was a contradiction until I reveal the Prince.  To paraphrase Machiavelli: a man forgets the killing of his brother before he forgets the taking of his property.  The budget or “cause” as it referred to is simply the voice of our lesser demons echoing the master politician codifying the death of our brother for the protection and expansion of our collective property.

Here at Debtor’s Prison we are familiar with deficits. It’s not about the number it is about the purpose.  Deficit for a world class education and a meaningful career = good.  Deficit for distracted, apathetic faculty and no job prospects = bad.

This topic deserves more than the brief illusion I gave to it in a previous post.  The American Civil War had just one cause: slavery.  States Rights is a myth.  Why does that matter 150 years after Fort Sumter? Because the Civil War made Americans who we are today, and in my opinion was simply the final military battle in what is called the American Revolution.  It created a vast country without borders – states because not a body of people but simply a necessary and subservient level of government.  Then of course we have the shame issue.

The shame associated with such a devasted defeat and a disproportionate share of the blame for the greatest atrocity man ever inflicted upon man.  The Civil War was less a war fought to free slaves as it was a war to pay for them.  Lincoln knew this as he said days before his own blood was placed on the alter of freedom with Brown’s and the 625,000 that died in between.  To understand this I offer an analogy.

Suppose eating meat and cheese (aka) animal slavery is wrong.  Who commits the greatest sin? He who keeps a single cow per year, sells the cheese and then slaughters the cow selling the meat, or the man who dines on steak and brie every night, but had never seen a cow in the flesh? Who refuses to even make the association? After the war each side had its own myth to create – The Lost Cause/States Rights folks of the South and the Freedman’s Army in the North.  Ironically, John Brown Free Soilers and Jayhawks are reviled by both sides …everywhere other than Kansas.

But it was the slaves stupid.  Everyone knew it at the time. The founding fathers knew it would come to this.  And somewhere, in their heart of hearts, every American for the last 150 years have known it.  If every mortal deed echoes through eternity, the cannons of the Civil War and still be heard loudly no matter how tightly we cover our ears and try and sing above the noise.