Tom Friedman: 9/11 Is Over (And We Wish Your Column Was, Too)

-Tom Friedman Boring The Hell Out Of Brandeis College Students-

Will Somebody Clip His Mouse Ears?

Sunday’s NY Times Op-Ed featured an article entitled "9/11 Is Over" by Billionaire Blowhard Tom Friedman asked the following question: “If Disney World can remain an open, welcoming place, with increased but invisible security, why can’t America?”

This is an article that that puts the insufferable Friedman in league with George W. Bush as both have no problem insulting us and are embarrassing and a disgrace to our national character.



Tom Friedman wants the rest of us to know that 9/11 (in case we didn’t know) is over and suggests that we better start smiling and hit the kool-aid stand while his corporatist cronies keep driving down our wages and selling off our white collar jobs to the third world. Since many of our corporations continue to outsource jobs and move their companies out of the country, exploiting cheap, third world labor abroad has never been “sexier”. Oh- and don’t worry about where all of that profit goes – although I’ll take a stab here and say not to the Minneapolis Department of Public Works and those guys who are supposed to fix the roads and bridges but somehow, there's no money for it…No, those profits go straight into the pockets of all those Beltway enabling Mousketeers, a few hedge fund managers, executives and needy billionaire blowhards like Friedman. Check.

Once again, Jolly old billionaire Tom would have us believe that if it weren’t for the damned, needy plebes, visitors and businessmen would be breaking the doors down to visit the United States (even WITH its shitty LaGuardia airport, as Tom points out) when it is precisely because of the corrupt and greedy NAFTA and labor policies his Beltway and corporatist cronies have architected that have brought shame on the national character which once attracted people here from all around the world.

How can America be a shining beacon of “hope” to international populations when they clearly see that our government kicks its own citizens to the curb by exporting our jobs so that a few wealthy elites can profit? When international communities see how the United States denies healthcare even to its middle class and its poorest children while it continues its gluttonous love affair with a Military Industrial Complex intent on sacrificing peace and prosperity at home for private corporatist personal gain?

Grandiose columnists like Friedman -- insulated from over forty-five million educated, middle class citizens who are struggling with plummeting wages, disappearing jobs and no access to healthcare have insulated themselves from America's devolution into the third world.

In the article, Friedman takes a stab at Rudy Giuliani by telling us how stupid we are to think about 9/11 as he proceeds to blame our citizens for the fact that foreign tourists don't want to visit anymore… because we 'think' about 9/11. He attempts to rub it in by admonishing us: "Our government has been exporting fear, not hope: Give me your tired, your poor and your fingerprints ” and then - get this --- blame the rest of us for poor, poor, citizen Microsoft being forced to move to the next big town over (Vancouver) in Canada because Gates can readily hire more cheap labor from India there and continue to drive down wages here for software professionals.

What hypocrite Friedman neglects to tell us is that while the economy is performing for Wall Street, Main Street is tanking faster than you can sing "Now it’s time to say goodbye to all our family…" By citing a travel study that concluded that “the U.S. entry process has created a climate of fear and frustration that is turning away foreign business and leisure travelers and hurting America’s image abroad,” Friedman turns the truth upside down by actually blaming the economic fallout of NAFTA policies that are responsible for making wealthy elites like himself get wealthier on the rest of us while the economy tanks. Nor did he mention anything in support of increasing taxes on his wealthy stock portfolio or for toughening tax codes that aid his corporate friends who make digital fingerprint technologies which he must have a few shares of by now.


War on the Middle Class. For billionaire columnists like Tom Friedman, being propped up like an overstuffed Disneyland mouse and serving as the NY Times Mainstream Musketeer allows him easy access to America's wealthy corporate "thought leaders" and Washington D.C. based think tanks who purport myths such as the Great Labor Shortage Lie and then invent said mythical statistics in support coordinated efforts between corporate America and colluding Beltway pols to fight the middle class here so that they don't have to fight the third world over there.

D.C. based New America Foundation, with a who's who Fortune 500 cast for its board of directors sums this commitment to pick the pockets of America's middle class by deporting their jobs to "build a large and sustainable global middle class":

" New America identifies and promotes the main elements of a new international economic strategy that enables emerging economies to evolve into successful, middle-class societies. " NEF even has its own Global Middle Class Program link here.
So WTF is Friedman telling us when he says "If Disney World can remain an open, welcoming place, with increased but invisible security, why can’t America?"

This Race to the Bottom column by Friedman is yet another reminder of how insulated he and his band of corporate elites really are from the rest of us and how much we need to cover our eyes and ears when insufferable elites like him pretend to speak for the good of our citizens while they insult us. Yes, Tom. 9/11 is over. And we wish your column was, too.

-2Truthy