(read the 2 articles included today)
The Supreme Court's Fascist Majority
I've been intentionally not talking about what the fascist majority on the Supreme Court has been up to because its frankly too disturbing to talk about. While it perfectly fits into my "dying paradigm" thesis...that our nation is crumbling before our very eyes...I've kind of intentionally avoided taking it on too often, as it makes me physically angry.
Nonetheless, if you've been paying attention, not only has the Court essentially eliminated the right of PEOPLE to launch class action lawsuits against corporate criminals (i.e. Walmart for their gross sexism), but now, in just a couple year period, the court ruled (Citizens United) that corporations right to give unlimited amounts of SECRET money to campaigns and candidates is as constitutional as your right to free speech, while ruling last week that Arizona's fantastic, landmark public financing of elections system is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Nonetheless, if you've been paying attention, not only has the Court essentially eliminated the right of PEOPLE to launch class action lawsuits against corporate criminals (i.e. Walmart for their gross sexism), but now, in just a couple year period, the court ruled (Citizens United) that corporations right to give unlimited amounts of SECRET money to campaigns and candidates is as constitutional as your right to free speech, while ruling last week that Arizona's fantastic, landmark public financing of elections system is UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Remember, public financing is our single best hope to breaking the strangle hold money has on our democracy. Now, our fascists on the court have said that the PUBLIC's right to control democracy is unconstitutional, but corporations right to do so is...what better pure, legal example of a rigged game and dying paradigm is that?
Once again, as with all other issues, in response to a truly serious crisis (in this case a political system awash in money and little more than "legalized bribery posing as democracy"), we are doubling down on it by increasing the power of corporate money and decreasing that of the public.
Once again, as with all other issues, in response to a truly serious crisis (in this case a political system awash in money and little more than "legalized bribery posing as democracy"), we are doubling down on it by increasing the power of corporate money and decreasing that of the public.
As I have said, the Matrix we have created, from the courts being packed with fascist federalist society scum bags to the corporate media to our consumer culture to free market fundamentalism (and money itself...and greed...) and on down the line is simply too strong to NOT implode...as it did a few years back, and as it will, worse, again. The question isn't whether, its what will be build in its place?
Wealth Disparity and Public v. Private Debt
I want to go back to the big picture in terms of economics and what's REALLY happening (i.e. its not a spending or deficit crisis...its a revenue and economic justice crisis). As the Financial Times notes (a business magazine for Christ sakes), “Starting in 1975, male US median pay has stagnated in real terms, while gross domestic product continued to rise rapidly. Growth in per capita national income must go somewhere. In the US, the money flowed almost exclusively to the very richest. The earnings of US individuals with pre-tax income in the top 1 percent accounted for 8 percent of total in 1974, but rocketed to 18 percent by 2008, according to the world top incomes database, a resource compiled from tax return data. Even larger proportionate rises in the share of income went to the top 1 percent of those with incomes within the 1 top percent."
This is only part of the story, as Joshua Holland elaborates on, "When that trend started, household debt represented about 45 percent of our economic output. By 2006, it had reached 100 percent. In the mid-1970s, we managed to put away about 10 percent of what we earned for a rainy day; by the time the crash hit in 2008, our savings rate was close to zero – we were spending money even though our incomes weren't rising, and we pulled that feat off by running up piles of debt rather than squirreling away a few acorns for when we might need it.
And it's important to understand that it is this overhang of personal debt, rather than the public debt over which Washington is obsessing, that is really dragging down the economy. It's an economy that's built largely on consumer spending after all, and American consumers don't have any spare cash to spend; real personal consumption was relatively flat at the beginning of the year, but has declined over the past two months. See this graph...and you can see where we are falling behind the rest of the world's major democracies:
And it's important to understand that it is this overhang of personal debt, rather than the public debt over which Washington is obsessing, that is really dragging down the economy. It's an economy that's built largely on consumer spending after all, and American consumers don't have any spare cash to spend; real personal consumption was relatively flat at the beginning of the year, but has declined over the past two months. See this graph...and you can see where we are falling behind the rest of the world's major democracies:
In fact, it is in the collapse of worker rights and unions in this country, going on over 30 years now (particularly as a result of the Reagan Revolution) that our country has fallen so horribly behind other nations on things like poverty, income disparity, and personal debt.
Economist Robert Reich has termed the three decades after World War II as the “Great Prosperity” – as "wages rose in tandem with productivity. Americans shared the gains of growth, and had enough money to buy what they produced." This of course was largely due to the role of labor unions. In 1955, over a third of American workers in the private sector were unionized. Today, fewer than 7 percent are.
With the decline of unions has come the stagnation of American wages. More and more of the total income and wealth of America has gone to the very top. The middle class’s purchasing power has depended on mothers going into paid work, everyone working longer hours, and, finally, the middle class going deep into debt, using their homes as collateral."
Now, to understand what's different in say, Germany, which is growing much faster than the United States and has lower unemployment (now only 6.1 percent...we’re now at 9.1 percent), one must look to the sharp contrast to the decades of stagnant wages in America, real average hourly pay has risen almost 30 percent there since 1985.
Senator Sanders and the Dying Paradigm
Bernie Sanders has been BY FAR the single most articulate and effective spokesperson against this Matrix we have set up...serving essentially as what will go down as one of the last politicians to warn us of the precipice we are now in the process of leaping off. Well, he did another "berniebuster" on Monday...speaking for 90 minutes on the Senate floor pleading that the President not give in to the latest extortion attempts from the domestic terrorist network known as the GOP.
I'm going to include some video of his speech as well as some clips from it, because, as usual, he's telling a story that is SO RIGHT and so clear, and that represents the opinion of such an overwhelming majority of Americans it MUST BE COMMUNICATED to the masses...because its critical to remember that when it comes to POLICY WE ARE THE MAJORITY...not the positions espoused by corporations and the super rich/powerful.
According to a recent Boston Globe poll of likely voters in New Hampshire, perhaps the most anti-tax state in this country, 73% support raising taxes on people making over $250,000 a year; 78% oppose cutting Medicare; 71% oppose cutting Medicaid; and 76% oppose cutting Social Security.
Sanders explains:
According to a recent Boston Globe poll of likely voters in New Hampshire, perhaps the most anti-tax state in this country, 73% support raising taxes on people making over $250,000 a year; 78% oppose cutting Medicare; 71% oppose cutting Medicaid; and 76% oppose cutting Social Security.
Now, Mr. President, you may be saying to yourself well, that was just one poll, and it was only polling one state. Clearly, that must have been an aberration. Wrong. National poll after national poll have almost mirrored what New Hampshire voters are saying.
A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found the following:
- 81 percent of the American people believe it is totally acceptable or mostly acceptable to impose a surtax on millionaires to reduce the deficit.
- 74 percent of the American people believe it is totally acceptable or mostly acceptable to eliminate tax credits for the oil and gas industry.
- 68 percent of the American people believe it is totally acceptable or mostly acceptable to phase out the Bush tax cuts for families earning over $250,000 a year.
- 76 percent of the American people believe it is totally acceptable or mostly acceptable to eliminate funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says are not necessary.
- 76 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut Medicare to significantly reduce the budget deficit.
- 77 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut Social Security to significantly reduce the deficit.
- 67 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut Medicaid to significantly reduce the deficit.
- 77 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut funding for K-12 education to significantly reduce the deficit.
- 56 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut Head Start.
- 59 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut college student loans.
- And, 65 percent believe it is totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut heating assistance to low income families.
And, while the leaders of the Tea Party movement in Washington are fighting to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid and getting the vast majority of Republicans in Congress to follow their marching orders, 70% of those who identify themselves with the Tea Party outside of the beltway oppose cutting Medicare and Medicaid to reduce the deficit, according to a recent McClatchy Poll.
Mr. President, here is the last poll I would like to highlight. It was done by the Washington Post and ABC News, and here is what it says:
72% of Americans support raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 to reduce the national debt – including 91% of Democrats; 68% of Independents; and 54% of Republicans.
First, if we simply repealed the Bush tax breaks for the top two percent, we could raise at least $700 billion over the next decade. The Republicans claim that repealing these tax breaks would increase unemployment. They are wrong. These tax breaks have been in place for over a decade and they have not led to a single net private sector job. In fact, under the eight years of President Bush, the private sector lost over 600,000 jobs and the deficit exploded. When President Clinton increased taxes on the top two percent, over 22 million jobs were created, and the revenue generated from this policy led to a $236 billion budget surplus.
Secondly, a 5.4 percent surtax on millionaires and billionaires would raise more than $383 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Tax Committee. As I said earlier, a millionaire’s surtax has the support of 81 percent of the American people according to NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.
Third, Mr. President, the U.S. government is actually rewarding companies that move U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas through loopholes in the tax code known as deferral and foreign source income. This is unacceptable. During the last decade, the U.S. lost about 30% of its manufacturing jobs and over 50,000 factories have been shut down.
California’s Budget Disaster and GOP Terrorism
I realize "terrorism" is a loaded term...but if anyone can supply me with a better one to describe a party that is threatening to take down the global economy (debt ceiling) unless their demands to decimate health care for seniors and the poor, clean water and air protections, heating for poor families, food for hungry children, and education, please do.
Actually, its more than that even...because they're also simultaneously blocking ALL ATTEMPTS to create jobs in order to further tank the economy and then blame it on Obama in next year's election. Essentially, by bringing government to a halt, even when it comes to blocking bills they once supported AND authored, they can continue to call Obama a failure. So, yes, crashing the US and global economy while advocating for more tax cuts for the rich and corporations and the end to programs that benefit those in most need (and who have paid for those very programs) and the rest of us for that matter, is a very real form of terrorism (just as their constant demagogueing of Muslims, gays, and women is).
Now, just quickly on California, as we are being held hostage by the GOP just as the country is...and, a small minority of our legislature, supporting positions only supported by a SMALL minority of Californians, has once again WON the budget debate because of our 2/3's super majority rule for tax increases. Sadly, though Prop 25 passed in November, giving Democrats the ability to pass budgets (but not tax increases) with a simply majority (as all other states but 3 have), it has resulted in Democrats being held responsible for passing a largely GOP plan that will result in untold misery and even harder times. This isn't to say we shouldn't have passed Prop 25 - because at least now the budget is on time and the GOP's ability to extort even greater cuts is slightly limited - but rather we still desperately need a majority vote on taxes (you know, the OTHER side of the budget...REVENUE).
Actually, its more than that even...because they're also simultaneously blocking ALL ATTEMPTS to create jobs in order to further tank the economy and then blame it on Obama in next year's election. Essentially, by bringing government to a halt, even when it comes to blocking bills they once supported AND authored, they can continue to call Obama a failure. So, yes, crashing the US and global economy while advocating for more tax cuts for the rich and corporations and the end to programs that benefit those in most need (and who have paid for those very programs) and the rest of us for that matter, is a very real form of terrorism (just as their constant demagogueing of Muslims, gays, and women is).
Now, just quickly on California, as we are being held hostage by the GOP just as the country is...and, a small minority of our legislature, supporting positions only supported by a SMALL minority of Californians, has once again WON the budget debate because of our 2/3's super majority rule for tax increases. Sadly, though Prop 25 passed in November, giving Democrats the ability to pass budgets (but not tax increases) with a simply majority (as all other states but 3 have), it has resulted in Democrats being held responsible for passing a largely GOP plan that will result in untold misery and even harder times. This isn't to say we shouldn't have passed Prop 25 - because at least now the budget is on time and the GOP's ability to extort even greater cuts is slightly limited - but rather we still desperately need a majority vote on taxes (you know, the OTHER side of the budget...REVENUE).
As a result, unbelievably and unfathomably, the Governor is about to sign into law an ALL CUTS budget even as the super wealth in our state just got a 14 BILLION DOLLAR TAX CUT from Obama and the GOP!! Worse, corporate share of tax revenue in our state is one third what it once was, and the top 1% control a greater share of the wealth since before the Great Depression. And, on top of that, our deficits are a result of Wall Street gambling and TAX CUTS over the years...yet, as is the theme of our dying paradigm, to address these FACTS, we are going to drastically cut education, health services for the poor, elderly and disabled, and gut public safety and environmental protections.
As for Jerry Brown, he is similar to Obama in the sense that he's a liar, coward, and fraud, and simply WON'T take up the populist mantle...or put up much of a fight...or use the fucking bully pulpit!
The result will be clear...whatever economic recovery we are experiencing in California WILL BE DECIMATED by the cuts that are coming. As someone working in the state capitol on this stuff I can tell you that we are not dealing with "human beings that utilize common sense or basic compassion"...but rather, sociopaths that will DO ANYTHING to protect corporate interests and the super rich...including signing the death warrant for thousands of Californians.
VIDEO SECTION
Olbermann is back on Current TV (now i need to figure out how to get comcast to let me watch it!)...see why Greta Van Susteren, Newt Gingrich and TSA's John Pistole made tonight's Worst Persons in the World.
http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/worst-persons-greta-newt-and-tsa-chief-pistole
Olbermann on some of Bachmann's (I'll discuss here a little more in future posts) greatest insanity hits...
http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/bachmanns-greatest-hits-john-wayne-who
http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/bachmanns-greatest-hits-john-wayne-who
If you watch or listen to enough Conservative propaganda, you'll believe that Texas is the place to go…of course it’s a bunch of bullshit…and yet another GIANT MYTH:
Legalize pot federally? Granted, it won’t win…but the fact that Ron Paul on the right, and Barney Frank on the left are at least trying, is an important step:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised New York as a beacon for social justice and progressive politics…showing what REAL LEADERSHIP is like. The anti-Cuomo, President Obama, provided a SICK, SICK “states rights” argument for why the federal government SHOULD NOT address gay marriage…ironically identical to the argument made by racists over the years against other civil rights fights of the past. Sad, sick.
Chris Wallace v Jon Stewart...makes my head hurt...
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/stewart-tells-chris-wallace-fox-news-ideolog
Now watch Stewart dismantle Fox even more...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-27-2011/oh--for-fox-sake
Now watch Stewart ABSOLUTELY TOOL Fox News...this on their "right wing victimhood" (or white man's burden"...which by the way, most Republicans believe is the case...that white people are the most discriminated against...sick...and twisted):
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/oh-fox-sake
Looks like another Democrats, thankfully, is calling for an investigation of Clarence Thomas...watch Olbermann:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rep-chris-murphy-calls-investigation-clare
Now watch Stewart dismantle Fox even more...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-27-2011/oh--for-fox-sake
Now watch Stewart ABSOLUTELY TOOL Fox News...this on their "right wing victimhood" (or white man's burden"...which by the way, most Republicans believe is the case...that white people are the most discriminated against...sick...and twisted):
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/oh-fox-sake
Looks like another Democrats, thankfully, is calling for an investigation of Clarence Thomas...watch Olbermann:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rep-chris-murphy-calls-investigation-clare
Bill Maher on Governor of Texas Rick Perry...
U.S., Israel escalate threats against flotilla, including U.S. citizens, By Glenn Greenwald
No time to speak more to this "Israel sickness"...but will soon. Greewald nails it better than I could anyway.
A few clips:
A few clips:
Condemnation of this outburst was pervasive but also easy: cheering for a foreign army to shoot unarmed protesters -- one's fellow citizens -- is self-evidently warped; that this came from a right-wing war-cheerleader-from-a-safe-distance with endless pretenses to uber-patriotism just added a layer of irony (Dear Foreign Nation: go ahead and shoot and kill Americans).
But over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also gave her views on the flotilla, and while her rhetoric was somewhat more restrained than that quoted above, she also seemed to endorse possible violence by this foreign nation against her own country's peacefully protesting citizens...
But over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also gave her views on the flotilla, and while her rhetoric was somewhat more restrained than that quoted above, she also seemed to endorse possible violence by this foreign nation against her own country's peacefully protesting citizens...
SNIP
The perception that Clinton endorsed possible Israeli violence against Americans is bolstered by the conduct of the U.S. Government in the wake of Israel's attack on the prior Gaza flotilla, when Israel killed 9 people, including the unarmed 19-year-old American citizen (and Turkish citizen) Furkan Dogan. While most governments instinctively condemn the killing of their own unarmed citizens by foreign armies -- Turkey was furious at Israel for months and world leaders in virtual consensus harshly condemned the Israeli aggression -- the Obama administration almost immediately took Israel's side, culminating with Joe Biden's disgusting rhetorical question, posed before the American teenager was even buried: "what's the big deal here"?
SNIP
In contrast to the Israel-must-always-be-defended mindset of U.S. political officials, compare how other governments view the possible shooting of their citizens by a foreign country...That type of uncontroversial statement -- you shouldn't shoot our unarmed citizens -- is inconceivable when it comes to the U.S. and Israel. So devoted is the U.S. Government to defending the actions of Israel's that it will even preemptively justify violent attacks on its own citizens, threaten Americans protesting Israel's policies with prosecution for aiding Terrorism, and isolate itself from the world to defend them.
If the “free-market” theories of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman were correct, the United States of the last three decades should have experienced a golden age in which the lavish rewards flowing to the titans of industry would have transformed the society into a vibrant force for beneficial progress. Direct Action for Single-PayerAfter all, it has been faith in “free-market economics” as a kind of secular religion that has driven U.S. government policies – from the emergence of Ronald Reagan through the neo-liberalism of Bill Clinton into the brave new world of House Republican budget chairman Paul Ryan.
By slashing income tax rates to historically low levels – and only slightly boosting them under President Clinton before dropping them again under George W. Bush – the U.S. government essentially incentivized greed or what Ayn Rand liked to call “the virtue of selfishness.” Further, by encouraging global “free trade” and removing regulations like the New Deal’s Glass-Steagall separation of commercial and investment banks, the government also got out of the way of “progress,” even if that “progress” has had crushing results for many middle-class Americans.
SNIP
Without doubt, there were serious flaws in the U.S. system, especially due to the legacies of racism and sexism. And it was when the federal government responded to powerful social movements that demanded those injustices be addressed in the 1960s and 1970s, that an opening was created for right-wing politicians to exploit resentments among white men, particularly in the South. By posing as populists hostile to “government social engineering,” the Right succeeded in duping large numbers of middle-class Americans into seeing their own interests – and their “freedom” – as in line with corporate titans who also decried federal regulations, including those meant to protect average citizens, like requiring seat belts in cars and discouraging cigarette smoking…while Rand and Friedman gave some intellectual heft to “free-market” theories, Ronald Reagan proved to be the perfect pied piper for guiding millions of working Americans in a happy dance toward their own serfdom.
In his first inaugural address, Reagan declared that “government is the problem” – and many middle-class whites cheered. However, what Reagan’s policies meant in practice was a sustained assault on the middle class: the busting of unions, the export of millions of decent-paying jobs, and the transfer of enormous wealth to the already rich. The tax rates for the wealthiest were slashed about in half. Greed was incentivized.
Essentially, the Right was promoting the Social Darwinism of the 19th Century, albeit in chic new clothes. The Gilded Age from a century ago was being recreated behind Reagan’s crooked smile, Clinton’s good-ole-boy charm and George W. Bush’s Texas twang. Whenever the political descendants of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt tried to steer the nation back toward programs that would benefit the middle class and demand greater sacrifice from the super-rich, the wheel was grabbed again by politicians and pundits shouting the epithet, “tax-and-spend.”
The consequences of several decades of Reaganism and its related ideas are now apparent. Wealth has been concentrated at the top with billionaires living extravagant lives that not even monarchs could have envisioned, while the middle class shrinks and struggles, with one everyman after another being shoved down into the lower classes and into poverty. Millions of Americans forego needed medical care because they can’t afford health insurance; millions of young people, burdened by college loans, crowd back in with their parents; millions of trained workers settle for low-paying jobs; millions of families skip vacations and other simple pleasures of life.
In his first inaugural address, Reagan declared that “government is the problem” – and many middle-class whites cheered. However, what Reagan’s policies meant in practice was a sustained assault on the middle class: the busting of unions, the export of millions of decent-paying jobs, and the transfer of enormous wealth to the already rich. The tax rates for the wealthiest were slashed about in half. Greed was incentivized.
SNIP
Essentially, the Right was promoting the Social Darwinism of the 19th Century, albeit in chic new clothes. The Gilded Age from a century ago was being recreated behind Reagan’s crooked smile, Clinton’s good-ole-boy charm and George W. Bush’s Texas twang. Whenever the political descendants of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt tried to steer the nation back toward programs that would benefit the middle class and demand greater sacrifice from the super-rich, the wheel was grabbed again by politicians and pundits shouting the epithet, “tax-and-spend.”
SNIP
The consequences of several decades of Reaganism and its related ideas are now apparent. Wealth has been concentrated at the top with billionaires living extravagant lives that not even monarchs could have envisioned, while the middle class shrinks and struggles, with one everyman after another being shoved down into the lower classes and into poverty. Millions of Americans forego needed medical care because they can’t afford health insurance; millions of young people, burdened by college loans, crowd back in with their parents; millions of trained workers settle for low-paying jobs; millions of families skip vacations and other simple pleasures of life.
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