After the GOP destroyed the economy at the end of the Bush Baby’s term, Obama was able to stop and reverse the collapse, in essence, saving capitalism just like FDR did. And Obama did this in the face of determined and unscrupulous opposition from Republicans, an opposition which was organized and initiated even before Obama took office.

Now, it is perfectly normal, even wholesome,
for different political ideologies to attack problems in different ways. But in this case, the Right was opposed to Obama not because they thought his policies would fail, but because they were terrified they might succeed. Even programs they had championed, traditionally supported, or even initiated in the past were now attacked simply because Obama proposed them. Conservatives were determined to frustrate anything Obama pushed precisely because they feared it might work. This is treachery of a very high order and sophistication.

Why? Because they were determined not to let Obama (or any Democrat) be perceived as having solved a problem created by Republicans in the first place. And when a black man was elected President, especially after he was reelected) the GOP realized they could no longer rely on the bogeymen they had depended on to mobilize the racist and ignorant haters and thugs they have counted on for votes ever since Nixon’s Southern Strategy was put into effect.

It is no coincidence Obama was attacked as being Kenyan, Socialist and Muslim. They were hitting every single button guaranteed to get their knuckle-dragging trailer-trash constituency of Bubbas and Archie Bunkers fired up. You will note that even those Conservatives who never believed a word of any of that nonsense never lifted a finger to try and stop their more extreme elements from engaging in such tactics; not in the public debate, not in the Right wing press, not even here on the Habitable Zone. They lit a cigarette, fumbled with their shoelaces, cleared their throats and looked the other way while the Limbaughs, the Donald and FOX did their dirty work for them. Now the Frankenstein monster they’ve created has turned on them in the form of the Tea Party and Trump.

There are real problems, genuine contradictions and inconsistencies with Obama, Democrats and Liberals in general. And there is much of value in Conservative principles and policy which should be embraced. But the Right wing in this country isn’t about any of that anymore,
its about pandering to special interests, accumulating vast amounts of money, gerrymandering and redistricting and voter suppression, parliamentary technicalities,legislative obstruction, hostage-taking and extortion, sophisticated propaganda and a cynical manipulation and cultivation of some of the ugliest and most vicious aspects of the American psyche to ensure that only the oligarchy has “any effect on the business cycle”. And the only effect that matters to them is to keep it as profitable as possible for as long as possible for as many plutocrats as possible. They are determined to red-line this country into the twenty-first century, and if the economy seizes up, or slings a rod, well, they’ll be in a good position to survive, and they’ll always have the Communists to blame.

Now that’s MY definition of Fascism.

Welcome back, Bowzer!

Read “The Agenda” by Bob Woodward, or any book by Bush’s former Treasury Secretary. You’ll see how the government can influence business cycles. And how Conservatives have adversely affected business to the detriment of the middle class and the benefit of the top 5%.

Modern wars are fought with highly complex and meticulous machines and systems that take years to develop and assemble, spend most of their time being maintained and that are put together by relatively tiny numbers of highly trained and very well paid professionals. The money spent on weapons doesn’t go back into the economy as wages. It goes into corporate profits or investment of more highly automated production capacity. There has been a “war dividend”, a huge one, in fact, but it didn’t wind up in the paychecks of the middle class. It went into the tax shelters and stock plans of their bosses.

Compared to their WWII predecessors, today’s fighters and destroyers are highly complex machines that require years to go from specification to deployment and they cost enormous amounts of money, even after allowing for inflation. In a real shooting war against a similarly equipped and capable enemy, neither of us could build weapons fast enough to replace combat losses, or train the crews needed to operate them. Both sides would go to war with what they had in their stockpiles, and it would be all over in a hurry, as soon as one side ran out of some key system or component.

As for the “business cycle”, its not clear how it would adapt to real modern war. Right now it doesn’t seem to be operating particularly well in peacetime. American industry isn’t geared to putting large numbers of people to work in a hurry any more. In fact, its organizing itself as much as it can to do just the opposite.

But it is strange we didn’t see a war dividend from Iraq.