Atlas Shrugged. And Said "Meh."

John Boehner recently told us how American employers are 'on strike' in protest of Obama's economic policies. Wow. Sounds like "Atlas Shrugged" might be coming true...

The plot of Ayn Rand's novel described a wealthy elite exasperated by the unreasonable demands of the workers - crazy stuff like living wages, healthcare, weekends off, etc., - so much so that they went on strike to teach them a lesson. Obviously such a profoundly dumb idea made "Atlas Shrugged" the pretend-to-have-read book for conservatives. It's got it all: It's anti-society. It's anti-reason. It's anti-humane and, most of all, it's anti-f*cking-reality.

But Boehner ain't no dummy. If he could just disengage that orange face from the collective lap of the corporacrats for a millisecond to speak honestly, he'd tell you his "rich folks on strike" meme is a total crock. It's spin trying to excuse the aggressors in America's decades-long class war... a phony attempt to ascribe rational motives for the rich holding out on us other than pure, dumb greed. F*ck you, Boehner. You think anyone's buying this crap?

Oh... I forgot.

More than 7,000,000 copies of "Atlas Shrugged" have been sold since 1957 with 500,000 being churned out in 2009 alone. Thanks to the 'bagger "revolution", the market for this kind of delusional gibberish has probably never been bigger.

But there are still average folks around who haven't drunk the Dom Perignon Kool-Aid or submitted obediently to the hand-tooled loafer on their neck... people who'd laugh at Boehner's pathetic notion of "the rich on strike". Like NY Mayor Bloomberg who warned this week that there could be "widespread rioting on the streets if more jobs are not created." Then there's the protests on Wall Street aimed at fighting back against the hostile takeover of America by the corporations. Said one protester:

“My home has been seized, I’m unemployed, there’s no job prospects on the horizon. I have two children and I don’t see a future for them. This is the only way I see to effect change,” he says. “This isn’t a Progressive issue. This is an American issue. We’re here to take our country back from the corporations,” adding he fears for the future of the United States where corporations can now spend unlimited, anonymous dollars to elect the candidates of their choices.

It's possible, even here, that regular people might one day stand up for themselves and put the corporate overlords in check. I just worry that it will take a lot more lay-offs, foreclosures, government spending cuts and general stomping on the middle classes before we wake the hell up.