The rot goes far beyond the left-right dichotomy. Politicians and platforms are about as much to blame as the manager of your local fast food chain for the same crappy food being served everywhere the eye can see. Obama is just as complicit, if not more so, than idiots like Bush. In fact, if you believe that Obama is actually smarter than Bush, then his corruption is actually the greater sin. One gets the feeling Bush didn't know any better. One also gets the feeling Obama does, but doesn't particularly care. Which is the greater indictment?

You don't become a national "leader" unless and until you've sold your allegiance to the entities who control wealth globally -- and I don't mean management, I mean gigantic corporate interest or the stratospherically rich. They actually call the shots. Everyone else is an employee, if not servant, to those interests, whether they realize it or not.

When we debate certain policies, Flavor A may taste a little different than Flavor B, but neither flavor gets on the menu without the owner of the restaurant making the decision to serve that dish in the first place. The choices available to most people are actually quite circumscribed. The difference between the right, even the far right, and the left (or center) these days is ultimately meaningless in the long-term. I agree that we need to get out of these wars. But war is a business, a profitable one to the crony insiders, and that's primarily why they keep happening. Democrats as well as Republicans are complicit in this.

Economic downturns, too, have a hidden narrative. Even during depressions, someone makes out like bandits (literally).

One day my coworker got pissed off that he didn't get any bailout package cuz he's not that poor. I told him, "Your monthly salary is a part of each bailout package."

I was watching Thomas and Friends video with my kids. The show loves saying,
"You are a really useful engine."
"Great I will work harder to become more useful."

I look around... so many useless jobs around my town and my workplace... all supported by the bailout money. Many people talk about rise of China, every details of their medical symptoms, every TV shows they watched, every fancy vacations they took, every political issues, everything their pets do. Just talk talk talk. It's getting harder to find those who actually do something interesting.

A little too much conspiracy theory here. The difference between the right and left is not tweedle dee and tweedle dum. Elections do matter and the best financed politician doesn't always win. Yes, there's manipulation by outfits like the Koch Brothers but there's still a lot of randomness, unpredictability and uncertainty out there to keep things interesting.

>A little too much conspiracy theory here.

Not much. If you look at my post date.
After this look at the statistics released in August. Especially consider changes in previous data.

Interesting article... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/03/second-global-financial-crisis

Someone needs to save the world from made up numbers and financial traders, speculators, property investors.