test of blogger

One of the best ways to analyze this past week of US history is to think of the senior prom rituals in the US. The agonies and anxieties: of choosing whether to go or not, of who to go with, of what to wear, of transportation to and from, of where to spend the night and with whom and for what purposes after the ritual dancing, and so far forth. The actual pleasures are quite small, reserved for that 20% of those who help organize, arrange, manipulate, vote for king and queen, and will realize that this was the very best time of their lives (and yes that implies that these people live for 50 more years in personal hells embittered with no relief from failed expectations that there was life after high school). Hidden behind all of this is the massive amounts of cash, the flow of capital, the egregious profits collected by the neo-feudal lords of capital, whose rentier profiteering comes from: limos, flowers, dresses, tuxedos, fuels, utility energy, wasted paper products, fake flowers and decorations, cheap food, hotel rooms, room service, the sale of photo and video memories, release of new CD's and DVD's; indeed their hands are taking from every possible source squeezing a redistribution of wealth from the masses throughout the US into their very large but all too very few pockets.

And if we see the US this past week as a giant prom dance, then the politics and machinations of capital, the dances with partners, the picking of dates and creating of nasty lifelong bitterments makes more sense in some ways. Otherwise it makes no sense at all. Consider just the votes in the Senate: amendment to ban gay marriage, amendments to fund war, amendments to not fund health and human services, amendments to lower the taxes of the very rich, resolutions to marginalize all but the rich white people, verbal duels on procedures, failing to ask any questions about unconstitutional activities of the people who manage these illegal ways, bills to kill forests and poison water, bills to strip food labels of information to protect consumers and eliminate standards for food quality, and it goes on and on and on.

The only possible positive outcome of this dance, in which various partnerships (the dates) are rewarded with special accessories and accoutrements: far right theocratic christian nationalists, conservative governors, the US military, the fascist nationalist militant conservatives, etc., belongs solely to the profiteering neo-feudal lords of capital. It is, as with all proms, all about the money; a fact of life hidden in the decorations, pretty dresses, potential sexual activities and rapes, nice cars et al. The money slides from the hands of the many to the ever fewer, hardly noticed by the many, given politically to that same 20% to buy their votes, and reserved to be moved offshore and taken out of the country. This week's prom in the Senate will cost this country more than a trillion dollars, nearly all of which will go solely to a tiny miniscule portion of the population, while the minions of good-hearted, high school. rah-rah rifraf will rally round the school mascot and cheerleaders to support kicking ass on number two, and stuffing the kids of color, or who are simply just different, into the proverbial lockers (in this case very real prisons).

Of course, like all proms, the unintended consequences are huge and unfathomable until years later when it is all too late. Consider the language bill, which if allowed to proceed could very realistically entice whole school districts and even states to stop teaching any foreign languages; why bother, if this is an english world. The marriage law would strip a huge chunk of the population of their inalienable rights of liberty and freedom previously protected by the 9th and 10th amendments. The tax cuts will kill most programs that aim to help the have-nots just get through a day without suffering, while continuing to reduce educational opportunities for most of the population. In an odd twist of fate, the Senate's prom this week could end proms across the country.