That’s pretty much the bottom line, Frank. And Obama administration can only be infinitely better than that which we have (for we have all had Bush in spadefuls) and as much better than that which we might have.

I still can’t wrap my head around the notion that, not only are Palin and McCain the opposing ticket, they could conceivably steal the prize.

Today’s global market indicators will then be beyond being the stuff of fond memory. None of us will survive the crash (that is if we survive this one). And the thing is, given a potential eight years, the problems now besetting us are not insurmountable. Left to run their course though, they will bury us.

May 2009 be a year of trying to distinguish or extricate Wall Street from Washington and vice versa. I mean, who the hell does Hank work for anyway?

http://1984news.com/

50+ years of conditioning as a “nice” person makes me keep on wanting to do something useful, say something positive, have some ambition and hope for better times and things on the horizon. But everything I see suggests otherwise.

My (I think rational) head tells me things are so complex, so dependent upon models and structures from yesteryear, and so camouflaged by dross and intentional feints and sleights-of-hand, that the smartest thing to do is to stay under every radar and plan for a simple life that may support some form of survival. Or maybe move, leading a low-level bohemian life style as an ex-pat in a small apartment somewhere like Amsterdam or Barcelona.

I don’t know how much longer I can take the full-bore unreality of what’s happening in North America.

Seems to me that since then, the Bomb has made ‘police action’ rather than ‘war’ the only viable, necessary and appropriate use of force in pursuit of civil society and a rule of law.

Those like John McCain, who speak of “Victory” have, in my view, completely missed that fundamental change in politics and international relations.

Whether economic, diplomatic or martial, police action is, of course, an entirely unsatisfying activity.

It’s not a roulette table where one might stake a sense of luckiness against some glorious gain, certain that even with loss, it won’t be any worse than what you’ve already been through.

Police action isn’t exciting, it isn’t ‘fair’.

Police actions are like washing the dinner dishes, you clean ‘em, put ‘em away, take out the garbage and then start all over again doing the same thing the next day. The task is not even entertaining enough to give back a grin for the effort.

And so instead, they speak of War – War on Drugs, War on Cancer, War on Terrorism, War on Poverty. With “War” might come “Victory”. Nothing like those taps on the mat to provide closure to the conflict.

And yet, the very use of the terms War and Victory lead instead to the frustrations of “fighting with our hands tied”, or “not enough troops, or resolve, or funding” to win. When, in fact, all we might reasonably expect on any of these ‘fronts’ is to hold some lines until something else changes.