It is about time for the 112th House to come back into session, and the first thing on the agenda appears to be an effort to take away any healthcare reform that have been passed by this Administration.
Next comes an effort to slash Social Security and Medicare, an effort to reverse financial reforms, and proposals to "slash" spending-but only on domestic discretionary items.
If the House majority had its way there would be no restrictions on offshore drilling, no rules designed to prevent climate change-in fact, few if any environmental protections at all...and all of this is intended to bring to life the philosophy that government, for all intents and purposes, should just go away and leave us all alone.
I don't buy into that kind of thinking-not even a little bit-and today we're going to look around the world and see if we can't figure out why.
We have been following the story of Betsie Gallardo lately, she being the woman that, due to a medical decision, was being starved to death in a Florida prison.
She has inoperable cancer, her death is imminent, and her mother was working hard to make it possible for Betsie to die at home with some dignity.
As we reported just a couple days ago, half the battle was already won, as the Florida Department of Corrections had agreed to place her in a hospital so that she could again go back on nutritional support.
On January 5th, the Florida Parole Commission voted to allow her to end her life at home-and that means you spoke out, made a difference, and achieved a complete victory for the effort.
But even as we celebrate that victory, I think we should take a moment to realize that there is a bigger lesson here: the lesson that the fights over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), benefits for 9/11 first responders (the Zadroga Bill), and Betsie Gallardo's imminent release are all actually pointing us to a political strategy that works, over and over, if we are willing to understand the wisdom that's been laid before us.
We are coming down to the end of the 111th Congress, and we are all surprised that a number of things actually got done: a nuclear arms reduction treaty appears to be on the verge of approval, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed; we have new health care and financial reforms (admittedly, they're imperfect solutions, but...), food safety reform, a better way to do student loans, and a credit card reform act that's forcing issuers to spend thousands of labor hours to develop new and better ways to work over consumers.
And yet there is one important bit of legislation that is still being blocked by Republicans, and, amazingly enough, it's a bill that would provide health care and compensation for those people who ran down to the World Trade Center site on September 11th, and for months thereafter, in the effort to rescue and recover victims, and to restore normal operations in the city after the attack.
Yes, folks, you heard me correctly: the Party of waving flags and "Second Amendment solutions" and tri-cornered hats and Rudy ("noun, verb, 9/11") Giuliani is now engaged in a desperate battle to screw over the very 9/11 first responders that you would think they would be...well, putting up on a stage somewhere next to Rudy Giuliani.
So it has come to pass that Elizabeth Edwards has died.
Despite having more things thrown at her than anyone I've ever had the chance to support in my entire political life, she managed to represent, in her very presence, a sense of grace and kindness and concern for those who were looking to have a better life than the one they had now, and I don't know that I could ever live up to the quiet courage she showed as her life came to an end.
And, bless her heart, it appears that she took the time to make sure that her kids knew her, and that she helped them put away enough "past" to, hopefully, ease some of the pain of the future.
But now the time has come to look beyond death, and, John...that's why I want to talk to you today.
So here it is, almost halfway through this President's first term, and it's starting to become abundantly clear that there is no way Obama is going to pursue the same agenda that he ran on in 2008.
In fact, as the President announces a deal that even he agrees the majority of the American people do not support, and he prepares the Nation for the news that we're going to have to borrow money for the very tax cuts he said we couldn't afford a few weeks ago, it's starting to look like Obama isn't even going to pursue the same agenda he campaigned for in October.
Now it is true that a lot of the problem here is the President's-but it's also fair to say that we Progressives have failed to force the President, and certain reluctant Members of Congress, to govern in a way that promotes that agenda.
That's a real problem, and it needs a real solution; before we get done today I'll offer a suggestion that could be not only highly effective, and a lot of fun besides, but a great chance to release your artistic muse as well.
So. the frayed ends finally rip and tear. It finally becomes clearer: most Democratic politicians aren't interested in being courageous. They are, however, interested in cash, campaigns, and power. They love to wordsmith and dazzle progressives with fabulous politicSpeak: yes, they do. More and better words delivered by more, but not necessarily better, Democrats.
Perhaps it is just plain decency that Democrats lack... the decency to stop playing both sides of issues. The decency to stop exploiting Republicans. Yes. You heard me. The Democrats have been the minority, the majority, with and without a sitting president and STILL the fucking Republicans are road blocks? It's always the Republicans's fault? No matter how it is sliced and diced, the Dems are always having their hands tied by some outside force. I'm not buying it.
I took a couple of weeks off, as Thanksgiving and snow came around (a subject we'll address in a day or so), but we are all again occupied as lots of things we've been talking about either will or won't come to pass, and it seems like all that's happening all at once.
Today we'll take on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT); this because the Pentagon's top leadership just came out and reported that revocation of the policy, following a period of preparation, would be their preferred way to go.
There will be lots of others who will take on the question of what's right and wrong here, and exactly how implementation might occur; my interest is, instead, to focus on one little fact that makes all teh rest of the conversation a lot more relevant.
That is the fact that about 70,000 LBGT troops serve in the military today, DADT notwithstanding, and, that if it wasn't for DADT, almost 45,000 more troops would be serving that aren't today.
And that one little fact leads to today's Great Big Question: exactly how much military would 115,000 troops be, exactly?
Over the course of the past couple of weeks we've been talking about how the War On Social Security was about to get under way and what happens when countries choose to privatize their systems.
Today we take on another bite-sized chunk of economic analysis: how can you get to a situation where Social Security is financially stable for the next 75 years?
We'll describe some proposals that are out there-but the big focus of this conversation will be to look at one change that, all by itself, could not only solve the entire funding problem, but could actually allow us to lower the Social Security tax rate, immediately, and still achieve fiscal balance.
"Well, if that's such a bright idea" you might ask, "why haven't we adopted it already?"
That's a great question-and after you hear the proposal, you may well have explanations of your own.
So if you've been following my work lately, you know that there is a renewed effort underway to change Social Security, and that the fight officially began just this very morning.
Now what's supposed to happen is that a television ad buy sponsored by a Wall Street billionaire is supposed to get you enthused about cutting your own Social Security benefits in the future; this is the tip of a "disinformation iceberg" that is trying to get you to act, right now, because if you don't you will never, ever, ever, ever, see a single dime of Social Security when you get older.
I was on a "let's talk strategy" conference call today that laid out some ideas for the "next steps"; we'll be talking about that call over the next couple of stories...but for today, we're going to talk about something you can do that will bring the message right to your favorite Member of Congress.
It is my job to bring to you not just the news that took place, but the news that has yet to happen.
Today, that's exactly what we have.
There is a war coming to try to change Social Security from a social safety net to a "revenue stream" for certain corporate interests, and that war is set to begin Tuesday morning, according to information that was provided to me yesterday afternoon.
Follow along, and you'll be both forewarned and forearmed.
Because, at this time of the year, we take pleasure in being frightened, let's shuffle through the US Empire's House of Horrors. On our tour, we cringe before: Brain-eating zombies of exponential destruction; soul-sucking vampires of eternal self-justification; right-wing, talk show demons whose wrathful voices rage into empty air; road-rage werewolves; hungry ghosts shuffling the aisles of supermarkets, convenience stores, corporate restaurant franchises and the food courts of shopping malls; and, running on a continuous video loop, The Fat, Mindless Blob That Ate the Planet.
The US mass media is rife with imagery of vampires, werewolves, zombies and other symbols of suppressed rage, insatiable craving and submerged terror. These narratives, resonate with the warnings implicit in nightmares, reveal the culture's tormented soul. By foisting imagery so arresting that it cannot be ignored, nightmares break through the ego's wall of denial; their disturbing imagery can be read as a wakeup call from the psyche that augurs warning and insists upon change.
On a cultural level, a profusion of nightmare imagery warns: paradigm shift or perish. Accordingly, the hack-scripted B-movie of the current political system could be titled: Duopoly Of The Dead: The Democratic/Republican Zombie Apocalypse. By their almost exclusive devotion to maintaining the status quo, these hulking, putrefying parties of the undead shamble through public life ... risen from the mouldering grave to tear the flesh from the present and eat the brains of the living. Neither party questions the zombie values of empire. Hence, in a soul-defying attempt to reanimate, by imperial might, the decomposing corpse of US power and influence, both parties are culpable for the senseless deaths of multitudes worldwide.
This zombie empire and its planet-decimating, neo-liberal death cult are marching toward the boneyard of history. What an empire contributes to the world is equivalent to the carnage an army of zombies inflicts upon the scenery of B-movies. Zombies (neither living nor dead creatures that create exponentially larger numbers of themselves) are an apt metaphor for the entropy inherent to closed systems -- the exponentially destructive force of The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
That is why I'm not a member of either party extant in our current duopoly: I'm betting on the emergence of the Entropy Party. It is the only party with a plausible platform; the only party that will keep its promises.
A downed phone line prevented Dennis Spisak from calling in, so tomorrow evening is going to be the interview that should have taken place on Saturday. Having been there before, all I can say is, "Yikes!"
Anyway, here's the info for tomorrow night's show.
The American economy is falling apart - but, as an election approaches, the public debate concerns the following: College pranks at Baylor in the 1980s; a high school date with a dabbler in witchcraft; the fact that someone called someone a whore; a joke about being a bearded Marxist in a college newspaper.
Monday's Rachel Maddow Show was a good example of the problem of both 'Republican' and 'Democratic' mainstream political shows: screw serious evidence, me and my audience got some bonding to do! And, as always, Daily Howler made the point well and provocatively. The larger point I took away from his screed about Monday's show, and the Howler quote above in particular (whether or not it is/was Howler's point), is that IT IS A BIPARTISAN PROJECT to distort and distract election and political coverage away from the economic crisis and related injustices. (The Howler's main purpose, whether its author Bob Somerby realizes it or not, is to make this point with airtight specificity.)
Miami, Florida, September 13, 2018 (FNS)-Facing pressure from voters to "do something" following the disaster caused by the privatization of Social Security, the White House today announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is awarding a $2 billion contract to the Halliburton Company for the purchase of 22,000 "cardboard condos" that will be installed in public parks around the Miami area in an effort to alleviate the problem of homelessness among the impoverished elderly.
"Having homeless senior citizens drag their appliance boxes all over the city reduces the community's aesthetic appeal and leads to complaints", said Halliburton spokesman Tendei Furlough. "The new modular design, combined with our ability to print attractive images on the outside of the boxes, guarantees both increased protection from winter weather and fewer complaints from affected neighborhoods."
FEMA's Director of Emergency Housing Resources Spike Fromula agreed: "We thought we had a real problem with homelessness in a number of our major cities after the Social Security safety net collapsed...but now, we think...well, we think we have a way to wrap the problem up in a neat little package."
This past May, in Ohio's primary election, I re-registered as a Green by voting for that party. Ohio's unfair ballot access laws were ruled unconstitutional two years ago when the right-wing Libertarian Party sued to be recognized as a legitimate third party on the ballot. Because of the ruling, Greens were able to obtain ballot access as well.
Ever since then, and especially since voting in a local primary last month, I've been inundated with calls and mailings from Republican candidates and one Libertarian whackjob. I continue to receive calls and mailings from Democrats on an equal basis.
This has me confused. When I was a registered Democrat, both major parties despised me - the Republicans because I was a Democrat, and the Democrats because I am a true lefty and they've moved so far to the right that they may as well be Republicans, and they can't stand being reminded that their base expects them to represent the left. Now that I'm a Green, they can't get enough of my ass.
This is confusing because neither major party has bothered to do its homework on independent voters. Rather than recognize us as the ideologically disparate people we are, with some holding left-wing beliefs while others hold right-wing ones, they lump us into some indescribable muddle that is comprised of a myth - that of the ideological center. Is it possible that these dishonest, cynical politicians actually believe their own Big Lie that there is a fixed political center that causes voters to be fickle about who represents them?
Democrat Lee Fisher certainly seems to think so. At a volunteer thank-you buffet this past summer, he strongly implied that Ohio, being a purple state, means that voters don't know where they stand and therefore will vote either way based on their mood at the time. This, of course, is a flat out lie - voters cast their ballots the way they do because they're angry at politicians for keeping unemployment high, services down, and favor the wealthy over all else. We tend to punish the party in power that is responsible for creating and maintaining the status quo. Given few alternatives, namely, vote for one of two horrendously bad politicians or just stay home, many choose the latter. This allows the party that is not in power to capitalize on low voter turnout and gain public offices. Far from being fickle, we simply get fed up and take whatever actions we think are allowed to us to punish the party in power for having screwed us over time and time again.
Sadly, the Big Lie is believed even by the politicians who tell it. Instead of recognizing the need to move to the left to win and keep government offices, Democrats choose to pander to something that doesn't exist. Independents are as much non-entities as left-wing Democrats are to party leaders and politicians, but because we're part of a voting bloc everybody seems to want a piece of no matter what, we're given slightly more importance than dog droppings come election time (as opposed to no more than that if we're Democrats, because we're expected to vote for the party's candidates or no one at all).
But let this not discourage you, good readers. Think about it: as Democrats, you are absolutely nothing to your own party. You vote how you're told to vote, and if you dare complain about woefully inadequate policy positions, you're "on drugs", "whiny", "irresponsible", "petulant" "children". Re-register as a Green, or a Socialist, or a Progressive, or a Communist, or Libertarian or Constitution, and watch how fast the major party politicians flood your mailboxes. Listen to the hours' worth of answering machine and voice mail messages once you go Indy. Turn your entire e-mail inbox into one large spam folder for having left the duopoly. They can't pander to you enough, hoping for your vote. And therein lies your true power as a voter. You might Vote Green in the primaries as long as they're allowed on the ballot, but come the general election you're a hot commodity.
Take advantage of this, MAKE the duopoly do something to EARN your votes. Your vote has power, or else the duopoly wouldn't be trying so damned hard to prevent you from voting your beliefs - or from voting at all. They hate you if you're a liberal Democrat, but they love you if you're unaffiliated. So why not use it to ensure that the politicians who represent YOU do as YOU want them to do, and not what Wall Street orders?
Your vote is a powerful weapon. If you don't use it, you'll lose it.
It is about a week before early voting begins for a bunch of us around the country, and that means this may be one of the last times I have to convince you that, frustrated progressive or not, you better get your butt to a ballot box or a mail-in envelope this November, because it really does matter.
Now I could give you a bunch of "what ifs" to make my point, or I could remind you how we spent all summer watching oil gush into the Gulf, and how that came to be...but, instead, it's "Even More Current Event Day", and we're going to visit Hungary for a extremely real-world reminder of what can go wrong when the environmental cops are considered just too much of a burden by the environmental robbers-and if today's story doesn't scare you to death, I don't know what will.
It ain't Texas, but we will surely visit a Red River Valley...and you surely won't like what you're gonna see.
Dave Schwab and others have been working their tails off to help Jill Stein raise enough money in her bid to become governor of Massachusetts to qualify for matching funds and be allowed into the gubernatorial debates with establishment candidates Deval Patrick and Charlie Baker.
That Ms. Stein's campaign, and her helpers in the progressive blogosphere, have been able to raise the $125,000 necessary to get included within the space of a few days is testament to the fact that, yes, the non-Democrat left IS indeed organized, and that with enough support from the left, can achieve astounding results.
The outpouring of support from excited Green Party supporters, grassroots activists and fed-up voters willing to take a chance, is amazing. According to the Stein campaign's web site, donations have been coming in online in such numbers that they overloaded their PayPal account.
9/24/10 - 4:35 pm
Due to an overwhelming outpouring of support which has pushed PayPal to it's limits, we need to temporarily stop taking donations via PayPal.
We hope you'll come back again soon and try again! We will turn the Contributions Page back on as soon as we can.
Thank you!
It is impossible for me to overstate just how big an accomplishment this is.
Can we now get an acknowledgment from the naysayers that there are viable third party candidates out there, and that they have earned support from the mainstream blogs? Or will they cook up some other excuse for refusing to help push Democrats to the left?
That's not mere snark. That is a serious question. One of the biggest hurdles in trying to raise awareness, raise campaign funds, get out the vote, and so on, has been the catch-22 condition that until Greens and other candidates could prove viability, they would get no support from mainstream bloggers even as that condition was made with the knowledge that without the help of mainstream blogs, it is exceedingly difficult to meet the requirements necessary to obtain that viability.
Only now that catch-22 has been broken. As of last Friday, Rasmussen reported that Patrick, a nominal Democrat, was only slightly ahead of Republican counterpart Baker.
Incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick remains slightly ahead of his Republican challenger Charlie Baker in the race for governor of Massachusetts.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Bay State finds Patrick earning 45% support, while Baker picks up 42% of the vote when leaners are included. Democrat-turned-Independent candidate Tim Cahill runs a distant third with five percent (5%), and five percent (5%)more favor some other candidate in the race. Two percent (2%) are undecided.
With the race that close, Jill Stein's candidacy gives progressives a real shot at shaping the outcome of the Massachusetts election. We have leverage enough to force Patrick, a darling of the right-wing Democratic Leadership Council in 2007, to actually adopt left-wing positions and govern accordingly.
None of this would have been possible if not for the hard work and dedication of third party activists, concerned voters, and an energized progressive movement. Also deserving of thanks are the people at this and other blogs who helped spread the word about Jill Stein. You all rock AND roll!
It's long past time for the left to publicly acknowledge that tying its meager fortunes to the Democrats is a lost cause. You cannot fight a beast from within its belly. You can only be digested and shat out.
You may not like the suggestion I'm about to make.
But I'll make it anyway: Vote third party, a LEFT-wing third party. MAKE the Democrats' self-inflicted losses in November be because they were too right-wing and the public, having been lied to for too long, chose to leave for a party that represents its interests over those of Big Business.
You must do this not only to send the right message, but because it is the ONLY way any Democrat will be made to realize just why he or she lost and what the party needs to do to win and keep power. That's not going to happen by sitting out elections, which is what the powerful want us to do anyway and only allows the far right to keep shaping the narrative that Democrats lose because they're perceived as being too liberal.
The latest update from Mordor is not encouraging . . .
There are still orcs in every agency of the federal government, uruk-hai still infest the Pentagon and the NSA, Congress is still filled to the rafters with Wormtongues and there are still five Nazgul on the Supreme Court.
I don't even want to talk about the Catfood Commission . . .
Nothing has changed in Mordor because Obama put the Ring of Power on his finger before Rick Warren even finished the Inaugural Invocation. We've all seen the consequences. The power of Mordor has not been broken, it hasn't even been seriously challenged.
Moria . . .
There is evil there that does not sleep.
The Dwarves of Capitalism delved too greedily and too deep. We know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum . . . shadow and flame . . .
There is no precedence for the panic and chaos that will occur. The global food supply/demand picture has NEVER been so out of balance. The food crisis will rearrange economic, financial, and political order of the world, and those who aren't prepared will suffer terrible losses. As the dollar loses most of its value, America's savings will be wiped out.
The US service economy will disintegrate as consumer spending in real terms (ie: gold or other stable currencies) drops like a rock, bringing unemployment to levels exceeding the great depression. Public health services/programs will be cut back, as individuals will have no savings/credit/income to pay for medical care. Value of most investments will be wiped out.
The US debt markets will freeze again, this time permanently. There will be no buyers except at the most drastic of firesale prices, and inflation will wipe away value before credit markets have any chance at recovery. The panic will see the majority of derivatives end up worthless. Since global derivatives markets operate on the assumption of the continued stable value of the dollar and short term US debt, using derivatives to bet against the dollar is NOT a good idea. The panic will see the majority of derivatives end up worthless. The dollar's collapse will rob US consumers of all purchasing power, and any investment depend on US consumption will lose most of its value.
As the Arctic's sea-ice cover decreases, less and less sunlight will be reflected back into space. And as tundras heat up, more and more of their carbon dioxide and methane content will be released into the atmosphere. Thus each added ton of carbon will trigger greater rises in temperature as the years progress. The result will be massive ice cap melting and sea-level rises of several meters: enough to devastate most of the world's major cities.
As famine, disease, and weather-related disasters strike due to abrupt climate change," a Pentagon report notes, "many countries' needs will exceed their carrying capacity"--that is, their ability to provide the minimum requirements for human survival. This "will create a sense of desperation, which is likely to lead to offensive aggression" against countries with a greater stock of vital resources.
Thank you, Dwarves of Capitalism. You've always believed Wall Street is a source of wealth to be mined. But it's not a mine.
I hope progressives will write letters-to-the-editor in the coming weeks, we all preach to the choir too much on our blogs. That's OK to a certain extent, but as far as I know, no class war has ever been won by a choir. So I think it's time to take our choir robes off and start kicking asses out there in America like Diane G and Gottlieb do every Friday.
No one's angrier at Democrats than I am, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give RePugs a free ride. They're the ultimate cause of the multiple crises we're facing, and the readers of America's newspapers need to know that.
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