Some Thoughts About Sfuff

I can't help seeing connections between the economic meltdown in the US and what has transpired here in Argentina. When Hernan asked me what I thought of the economic crisis, I simply said, "it is Argentina". I have this image from Naomi Klein's film, the Take, of the armored trucks driving off the middle of the night, whisking the cash out of the country, stuck indelibly in my mind. I am, however, encouraged that Congrss seems to not be bowing obediently to King George's pressure this time. The scare tactics are not working. They saw through Henry Paulson's plan to make the position of the Treasury Secretary supreme, without oversight or judicial constraints. It seems even that the Democrats are more eager to fork over this money than the Republicans. I like that the Republicans are saying no. It means that some of them actually have integrity and stand firm on their belief that the market should correct itself. I think the Dems want to get money to the people who face foreclosure, and if this plan is going to go through, I want to see that as well, along with provisions for the profits to come back to us and not these investors when things turn around, and no CEO bailouts. It all seems to be going in the right direction.

And then there is McCain.

I never noticed that he has one eye that is really big and another that is kind of normal size.

I think it is quite funny that after McCain speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative, he is going to Washington to make himself useless. Washington is getting along just fine without him, but he is going to go back and insist that he be allowed to play this game. They've said, thanks, but no thanks, but he is going anyway.

Now, if he were really serious about this no campaigning, why didn't he just go and cancel his appearance at this Clinton Global Initiative? To me it was so obvious in his speech when he mentioned it, that he wanted people to know he was going there. And is Sarah going to stop campaigning as well? Could this all have to do with how little money his campaign has?

Raul thinks Obama is going to win and has total faith in his ability to restore the US to its former glory. Argentines are very politically aware, so I have faith in Raul's assessment. But I wonder how much he really knows the shadiness of US politics. There is still an October surprise, right?

Yesterday I was watching the news in Spanish after I switched to CNN to find out what it meant that McCain was "suspending" his campaign (I actually thought he was quitting). I watched the traffic report which showed traffic flowing freely. After a train strike in the morning, which caused total chaos, everything seemed back to normal as people began returning home.

The report went something like this:

Traffic is flowing freely in the city of Buenos Aires as you can see from these live pictures. There are no protests or accidents at this time.

I mentioned to Raul that I thought it was funny that they said there were no protests. He told me that he, and others are tired of the protests. I can understand that it can be frustrating when you are trying to get to work, but if no one protested, imagine how bad things would be here. If I were at home, I would want to be on the street right now with a pot and a spoon, banging the bottom of the pot with a sign saying "no bail outs". That is what people here would be doing. When Cristina agreed to pay Argentina's international debt to the Club de Paris (whatever that is), people hit the streets and said, "what about the money the banks owe us?"

Argentina is our future if we don't wake up.

Maybe some day on the news, the traffic report will say, "no major accidents or protests today, traffic is flowing freely".

And now for some funny - here's Letterman on John McCain canceling his appearance.