The economic collapse of the Soviet Union, er, I mean, the United States

[Guest guest]

The economic collapse of the Soviet Union, er, I mean, the United States

By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com

 

I just started reading Martin Cruz Smith's new murder mystery, " Wolves

Eat Dogs " . It takes place in Russia after the collapse of the USSR. To quote

the cover blurb, " [Moscow police detective] Arkady Renko has survived, barely,

the journey from the Soviet Union to the New Russia.... Now Renko enters the

privileged world of Russia's new billionaire class " . By page 55 (where I am

now), the author has painted a pretty grim picture of life in the New Russia --

corruption, Mafia-like violence, social disintegration and economic inequity

between the new super-rich corporate mafia and the average poverty-stricken

citizens who have lost their savings, their homes, their jobs and their

pensions.

 

Many political scientists will agree that the economic collapse and

resultant political fragmentation of the Soviet Union was caused by a huge drain

on that country's resources as a result of the USSR's occupation of Afghanistan

combined with the humongous expense of keeping its super-power military machine

running at top speed.

 

In 2005, the United States of America seems to be in approximately the

same position that the USSR was in during the 1980s -- too much money being

spent on war; maxing out our credit cards on war toys at the expense of

everything else.

 

I hope that I'm wrong but what if this comparison is valid and there will

also be an economic collapse here in the United States too? And will political

fragmentation also result? Perhaps the red states will form a new country

called Tex-America and the rest of the states will break into West America,

Mid-America and America East....

 

And will US corporate gang leaders take over Houston and New York and DC

like they took over Moscow? And will the average person in Chicago and Los

Angeles lose their jobs, housing and savings like what happened in Leningrad?

Should we study the antics of the New Russia to get a glimpse of how the New

America will be?

 

Or can we learn NOW from the USSR's example and cut down our

over-expanded and unjustified military empire before it's too late?

 

****

 

Right before the 2003 Shock and Awe disaster, I got the following letter to

the editor published in Time Magazine: TIME Magazine Archive Article -- Letters

-- Jan. 20, 2003 " Is it possible that Iraq will be to America What Afghanistan

was to the USSR? The similarities are chilling. " www.time.com/time/magazine/

article/0,9171,1101030120-407342,00.html

 

****

 

From Patrick: More than simply the Afghan war was involved. An incipient

capitalist class had grown up under the cover of the old Soviet state

bureaucracy and they saw the opportunity to take advantage of working people's

confusion and shift the full wealth of the Soviet state into their private

hands. In the USA that's already a well-established pattern with people like

Bill Gates being rewarded with the pay-off from decades of public tax-dollars

invested in computer development. The pattern is already set here.

 

****

 

From MA: " And will US corporate gang leaders take over Houston...like they

took over Moscow? " They already have. Houston's petrochem barons.

 

****

 

From Virginia, who fears that the Bush bureaucracy is just looking for any

excuse to declare martial law. I mean, what if the bird flu scares doesn't pan

out? The deliberate bankruptcy of the USA might be as good an excuse to

declare martial law as any: PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. budget deficit increased

43% in November, to $83.1 billion, the largest November deficit on record. So

far this fiscal year, which began October 1, 2005, the government is $130

billion in the hole, after being down $115 billion this time last year. And as

one best-selling author warns, this dangerous trend has dire consequences for

every American.

 

In the New York Times bestseller Empire of Debt, co-authors Addison Wiggin

and Bill Bonner write, " When people cannot pay their debts, they do not pay

them. But the debts do not cease to exist. "

 

Wiggin warns this is as true with governments as it is with people. " Even

Washington can't spend more than it earns forever, " he says. " Yet the American

people don't seem to realize that they're the ones who will be stuck with the

bill. " Wiggin points out that the American Debt Clock totals over $26,000 per

citizen. " That's a trend that we might call 'unsustainable.' The total US debt

crested $8 trillion in October. That's two-thirds of the total US GDP. If we

were paying it, that would be 6 out of every 10 dollars earned in the economy

going to pay off debt.

"

Unfortunately, Wiggin says, just the opposite is happening.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104 & STORY=/www/story/12-13-200\

5/0004233256 & EDATE =

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law

 

****

 

Because part of the Cruz Smith novel takes place in the ghost town of

Chernobyl, here's something from Nuc News, a great source of information on the

misuse of nuclear weapons and power: Nuclear weapons set to become part of US

conventional warfare arsenal – Policy implications for preventative war measures

against Iran

http://deshcalling.blogspot.com/2005/12/nuclear-weapons-set-to-become-part-of.ht\

ml

 

****

 

Buy " Wolves Eat Dogs " at Cody's Books: In " Wolves Eat Dogs, Renko returns for

his most enigmatic and baffling case: the death of one of Russia's new

billionaires, which leads him to Chernobyl and the Zone of Exclusion -- closed

to the world since 1986's nuclear disaster. It is still aglow with

radioactivity, now inhabited only by the militia, shady scavengers, a few

reckless scientists, and some elderly peasants who refuse to relocate. Renko's

journey to this ghostly netherworld, the crimes he uncovers there, and the

secrets they reveal about the New Russia make for an unforgettable adventure.

http://www.codysbooks.com/product/info.jsp?isbn=0671775952

 

****

From Dr. El-Najjar: Islam Is Not the Enemy of the American Empire. ....The

real reason for the US war on Iraq was the same reason for the US wars on Korea,

Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, and other wars America launched in the last 150 years:

BUILDING, EXPANDING, and MAINTAINING the AMERICAN EMPIRE, in order for rulers of

the Empire to control the Planet’s major resources.

None of these wars was launched for religious reasons. America did not

launch them in the name of Christianity, or to defend it, or to spread it.

America did not fight World War II, for example, to defend or spread

Protestantism in Germany. When America invaded Korea and Vietnam, there was no

Buddhist or Confucian threat to the US or to the World. Most obviously, when

America invaded Grenada and Panama, these little Catholic countries did not pose

any threat to the US or the world. Again, these wars were nothing other than

BUILDING, EXPANDING, and MAINTAINING the AMERICAN EMPIRE.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2005%20Editorials/October-December/Islam%2\

0Is%20Not%20the%20Enemy%20of%20the%20American%20Empire%20By%20Hassan%20El-Najjar\

..htm

 

****

 

From Enrique: Iraqi blogger Riverbend hits the nail on the head again:

Baghdad Burning, by Girl Blogger:

 

Elections...

 

Elections have been all we hear about for the last ten days at least....

More people are going to elect this time around -- not because Iraqis suddenly

believe in American-imposed democracy under occupation, but because the

situation this last year has been intolerable. Hakim and Ja’affari and

theirminions have managed to botch things up so badly, Allawi is actually

looking acceptable in the eyes of many. I still can't stand him.

 

Allawi is still an American puppet. His campaign posters, and the horrors

of the last year, haven’t changed that. People haven’t forgotten his

culpability in the whole Fallujah debacle. For some Iraqis, however, he’s

preferable to Hakim and Ja’affari after a year of detentions, abductions,

assassinations and secret torture prisons. http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

 

 

****

 

From Robert: A Bob Dylan song that seems appropriate:

 

Sometimes I think this whole world

Is one big prison yard.

Some of us are prisoners

The rest of us are guards.

 

 

****

 

From Charlie: There is another mystery here. Those who fear God are fond of

quoting the Ten Commandments, the first of which says, " Thou shalt Not Kill. "

These are the people who want to protect a fetus or an embryo, which cannot be

defined as a human being. They also are fond of war. It has not occurred to

them that counted in all the dead, innocent Iraqis, there had to be a lot of

pregnant women. And, to a man, they are in favor of the death penalty.

 

 

****

 

From John (you get to guess what he is decribing): What we have here is a sad

combination of the Hitler regime, the three stooges, Keystone Kops, Reagan

fiasco and Bozo the Clown.

 

****

 

More rebuttals regarding the Dallas Katrina evacuees (from Jim): My cousin,

who is a sergeant with the Dallas Police Department, had no idea what I was

talking about [when Jim asked him if there were gang problems with the Katrina

evacuees]. It was news to him.

 

****

 

From Hanna: An Incredible Day in America: Today, for two separate reasons,

has been an incredible day in America. First, the United States has legitimized

torture and secondly, the President has admitted to an impeachable offense.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-garbus/an-incredible-day-in-amer_b_12392.ht\

ml

 

****

 

From me: " Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most

good deeds. "

 

****

 

From " Amy needs to go to Moscow " : Someone needs to find a publisher who will

give poor sweet Mary Straitwell mstraitwell a big cash advance so she

can write this chapter. It involves going to Moscow. " Why would you want to do

that? " I asked her. " It's COLD in Moscow in winter. Go to Puerto Vallarta

instead. " But no. You know how teenagers are.

 

Apparently, parts of Moscow are like the new Las Vegas -- casinos,

gangsters and strip joints. But maybe Amy wants to go there because of their

" New Russia " up-scale underground malls. http://travelswithamy.blogspot.com/

 

****

 

I have become shocked and amazed lately at how bitter and cynical and

mean my e-mails are becoming -- but ever since Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney

bombed several defenseless countries into rubble, failed to protect my country

on 9-11, scalped our treasury and blatantly STOLE two national elections, I've

just not been the same. I WANT to be a kind and loving and caring person but

the example being set for me by America's " leaders " has precluded that from

happening. My apologies.

 

In defense of my country, I must fight fire with fire. Those people in

the White House are NASTY.

 

****

If you like getting my outside-the-box essays but your in-box is too full

and you need a break, that's okay. Just e-mail me, say " Dear Jane " on the

subject line and I will take you off my list. Thanks.

 

And if you get more than one copy of this, blame it on my jankity old

computer!

 

 

****

" Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and

loved: World Peace in one generation! "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix