IS NOW THE TIME WHEN SPIN WILL NO LONGER BE ENOUGH?

IS NOW THE TIME WHEN SPIN WILL NO LONGER BE ENOUGH?

By Kevin Stoda

As Americans and others around the Western world begin to celebrate mother’s day, it is appropriate that Americans are being reminded that mother’s day in the USA is actually a day linked historically to anti-war movements and sensibilities leaning towards societal peace.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/author_susan_galleymore_on_long_time

The American Mother’s Day we know now was spearheaded by Julia Ward Howe who was incensed by the senselessness of the U.S. Civil War. (She was also active in the women’s suffrage movements.)

http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/famous-moms/julia-ward-howe.php

My own mother, who live back in Missouri, notes that many parents are finding that their own grown children—parents of their own children—find themselves having to move in with them recently after they lose their jobs and houses. Some sleep for only a few nights or weeks on the coach or in a spare room before picking up the pieces.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/hard-times-generations-triple-up/story.aspx?guid=%7B8078821E-E5F6-45CA-A756-4242C16CDC85%7D

Others are not able to pick up at all and move on quickly.

Chuck Whitehead, a real estate dealer, has stated, “From what he can tell, many people are moving back with family -- often their parents -- while they get their finances in order, from the 40-year-old recovering from a foreclosure to the 30-year-old saving up the down payment to help him buy his first home.”

Whitehead adds, “But it's not only ‘boomerang’ kids returning to the nest and creating bigger households. On the other end of the age spectrum, some older Americans lost a good deal of their nest eggs due to the fall of the stock market -- funds intended to pay for their everyday expenses or assisted living. Some of them are moving in with family too.”

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/mar/10/many_children_among_homeless74436/

Such homeless Americans who are now welcomed by their own mothers should certainly be thankful this Sunday.

http://www.dshs.wa.gov/pdf/ea/kinship/Seniorsrearranginglivestoraisegrandchildren.pdf

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/1+in+50+American+children+experiences+homelessness-a01611812866

NOTE: On the other hand, the budget for war and bailouts today will be paid off by the children, the grand children and the great grand children of this generation. However, this is why we celebrate Mother’s Day: “In the name of women… promote the amicable settlement of “ wars. http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/mothers_day_for_peace_a_dramatic


My mother wrote me in Europe of this scenario of grandparents providing homes to homeless family members in an email that described life in southwest Missouri.

http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news341.html

Since I received that e-mail (a few months back) some 600,000 to 1,100,000 more adults and youth in the USA have lost jobs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090508/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

Interestingly, this phenomena of grandparents having to raise their grandchildren and take care of their children (because the USA economy and society cannot help these children and to parents keep and maintain stable work and homes in 2009) is not being talked about very much in the national or international press.

http://www.thepantryofbroward.org/in_the_news.htm

http://cnnmoneytalkback.blogs.cnnmoney.cnn.com/2009/01/26/optimistic/

Interestingly, this homelessness was a problem already in America over two to five years ago, i.e. when America supposedly had a jobless recovery (as business news and government spin doctors would have us believe).

However, now that so many homeless are hitting the road or living on family coaches, I am not certain why there are not more stories on this circulating nation and world wide.

http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=780&pst=403433


SPIN OR AN ASYMMETRICAL INFORMATION PROCESSING?

One reader has called this the problem of asymmetrical information processing which Americans face.

http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/005112.html


I simply call that sort of phrasing: SPIN.

While it is certainly good that there exist extended family members left in America who can take care of one another, this is now what four decades of run amok free and manipulated market economies sold these grandparents back when Reagan was elected. Nor is it what neo-liberals and neo-cons had promised and had been elected to bring us.

Certainly not!

We have only had whitewash for decades. That is SPIN.

http://www.workers.org/pdf/2009/10ww12march2009.pdf

And, the spin continues

Look at the spin we see how the AP press just today explains to us that 539,000 Americans were laid off in April!
“WASHINGTON – The pace of layoffs slowed in April when employers cut 539,000 jobs, the fewest in six months. But the unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent, the highest since late 1983, as many businesses remain wary of hiring given all the economic uncertainties. The Labor Department tally released Friday wasn't nearly as deep as the 620,000 job cuts that economists were expecting, and was helped by a burst of federal government hiring of temporary workers to prepare for the 2010 Census. The rise in the unemployment rate from 8.5 percent in March matched economists' forecasts.”(AP)
Come on!

Quit the Spin already!!!

That sort of reporting is like telling the USA in 2009 that we have to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein is going to blow us all up with WMDs.

In short, SPIN from AP new writers is beginning to be a humongous waste of time on Americans(—and most other shell-shocked jobless around the planet).

STOP IT ALREADY.

Even generals, who used to get a free-pass to sell war products or sell Americans another war on most major TV networks are being looked at askance.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/pentagons_pundits_ny_times_reporter_david

Do you remember those days of WAR SELLING by former ex-US-general-pundits making a load of money in their spare time spinning war and fear for all kinds of industrial-military contractors in 2001 through 2008?

As Amy Goodman summarized in her interview with David Barstow, who broke the scam and constitutionally criminal manipulation of the USA public, “The Pentagon [has] continued to use retired generals to counter criticism on various issues, ranging from Guantanamo to the surge in Iraq. In some cases, analysts would appear on cable news programs live from the Pentagon just minutes after receiving a special briefing.”

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/david-barstow/

Event the inspector general has had to admit recently that Barstow’s claim of secret manipulation of the USA media by dozens of retired generals (many with undisclosed relations with different military contractors) is fairly accurate.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war/

America, I have to ask, “IS NOW THE TIME WHEN SPIN WILL NO LONGER BE ENOUGH?”

I hope so.

Sadly, “[s]ince the New York Times first report appeared thirteen months ago, the major cable news programs and television networks have responded with what has been described as a, quote, ‘deafening silence.’ Even after David Barstow won the Pulitzer Prize last week, the story—and even Barstow’s prize—went unnoticed on cable news and television networks.”

COME ON MEDIA, STOP THE DEAFENING SILENCE (and SPIN).