Moe Shrugged

Here is my synopsis of Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand


An 1100-page tedious fantasy novel in which Russian-born Ayn Rand envisions a totalitarian final solution that rids the technocratic elite of the "looters" (loosely defined as everyone else, but particularly the compassionate).

Here is a link to a more thorough crucifixion:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/222482/big-sister-watching-you/flashback

One cannot help but note the similarities between Mitt Romney's use of "takers" and Ayn Rand's use of "looters". When today's GOP embraces this beast-ethic it countenances fools gladly.

All the president's men

If Wall Street wants it, then Obama wants it, plain and simple:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17802-no-more-second-chances-for-larry-summers

The trouble with the "Obama is a tyrannical, black-skinned, socialist" meme is that it blinds people to the truth. As I heard it put recently, "He is a black Nixon, not liberal in the least."

Look at the aversion to whistle-blowers (truth tellers I like to call 'em).
Look at his slavish devotion to the tycoon class.
Look at the people he surrounds himself with.

This is no liberal, not even close.

Reviving history

"We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9yoZHs6PsU

Reflecting on Sandy

As the cleanup for hurricane Sandy begins, I have asked myself a question.

It is easy to see the contribution of government in time of crisis. It is represented by the National Guardsmen, the FEMA representatives, and equipment. It is represented in National Weather Service, in emergency declarations, and shelters.

It is easy to see the contribution of charities in time of crisis. The Red Cross is feeding, clothing, and sheltering people. If necessary they are organizing blood drives.

My question is, "What is the contribution of multi-national corporations?" There must be some, because Wall Street is their homeland if anyplace is, but I don't see much.

I suppose that is relevant, because Mitt Romney talked about privatizing FEMA earlier in the year.

In a privatized rescue operation, would a helicopter lower a credit card swiper first, and a rope only if the fee was met?

I view government as organized cooperation, and think it works best when its' services are commonly needed, or morally necessary. Organizations like the Coast Guard, National Guard, National Weather Service and FEMA prove their worth when you need them most. These are organizations that the US government needs to take care of our own and I think it is unwise to cripple their effectiveness, and it seems especially obvious now, doesn't it?

Would New Jersey's governor Chris Christie, for instance,  have complemented president Obama's effectiveness if FEMA were unresponsive?

Romney gone wild

Here is a link which shows Mitt Romney at a Boca Raton fundraiser:

Romney exposed

The video is surprising on many levels, but I suppose it is always surprising to hear a Parseltongue speak carelessly.

What is most offensive to me is that Mr. Romney was born rich and personally embraces every tax loop-hole he can discover, yet derides the poor and the elderly as government-dependent moochers for taking credit where credit is due.

Mitt seems to forget that the Earned Income Tax credit was a conservative idea that was proposed to offset tax-cuts for the wealthy in the interests of fairness, but it has been successful at lifting people out of poverty. If anything, Mitt should be proud of the idea because it works, and remind the Florida elderly in particular about the unintended benefits of cooperative conservatism. 

Instead, Mitt characterized the largely GOP-voting elderly in a crucial swing state as "takers", as "moochers", and as essentially bought-votes. One expects that if voters were to watch this video and juxtapose it with their own finances, as perhaps military men might, that these same voters would vote against Mitt or else stay at home.

This speech was self-defeating.

More than that, it highlights a view that conservatives have adopted recently that they should be ashamed of. If a neighbor needs help, you offer a hand. It should be a self-evident truth that cooperation is better for all.

It is flattering to believe that if you are successful it is due to your virtues, but self-flattery is not a virtue even in the rich. There is more to success in life than success in finance and this video makes clear that Mitt has a lot to learn about being both human and American.

Shall we live in a society that laughs at Katrina victims, throws the elderly on the streets, slams a door in the face of the talented-but-poor, and idolizes tycoons as virtuous?

If so, then Mitt is your Messiah and Paul is your patron saint.

A warning for the GOP

Moral behavior extends from the principles of Justice and Compassion.

A party that wants to comfort the comfortable during a time of economic stress is no guiding light in the darkness, no pillar of strength.

Is it not weakness and a moral disgrace when the strong bully the unfortunate?

Is this the path to greatness?

Money isn't everything.

When Henry Ford got rich, America got cars.
When Thomas Edison got rich, America got phonographs, lightbulbs, and motion pictures.
When Bill Gates got rich, America got a high-tech industry.

When Mitt Romney got rich, America got Bain Capital, tax dodging, and a whiny nouveau riche.

Advice for Romney

Here are more honest campaign messages for the Romney camp:

"If I am elected president, I promise to lower my own taxes substantially and make you suckers pay for it."

"If I am elected president, I promise to have the best of healthcare for myself and make you suckers pay for it."

"If I am elected president, I promise to cheat on my taxes and make you suckers pay for it."

He's a dick and he should own it.

More advice for Occupy

I am listening to Neil Young & Crazy Horse's new album, Americana, at the moment. He gives classic American songs, like Oh Susannah, the Neil Young treatment. That is, these songs belong to Neil Young in a big way.

However, he sings Woodie Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" straight. As I sit listening to it, hearing the lyrics again, it occurs to me that this should be the Occupy anthem. It really is perfect, a case where message and movement align.

If Woodie were alive today, you know he'd be at Wall Street with his fascist fighting guitar.

My advice to Occupy

Whenever I hear the phrase, "Occupy movement" I bristle. A movement, after all, stands for something.

I suggest that Occupy stand for restoring the Glass-Steagall Act. Not restoring Glass-Steagall and a laundry list of pet peeves, but for restoring Glass-Steagall exclusively. There is a broad coalition of people that would get behind a stance like that, essentially everyone except lobbyists, politicians, and big-job bankers.

Clearly Occupy needs focus, otherwise it will have accomplished so little for so many at a time when the need is great.

Jim Yong Kim

President Obama made an interesting nomination for World Bank President. Partners in Health is a charity featured in the book, Mountains beyond Mountains, and the star of that book, Dr. Paul Farmer was delighted with the pick.

Here is more information on the pick from the Partners in Health website:

Dr. Jim Yong Kim

My thoughts on Trayvon Martin

What are my thoughts on Trayvon Martin (story here)?

I sez, first, that irresponsible gun use should not be defended by gun owners as if it was responsible gun use. This act was not self defense, but murderous.

I sez, second, that if this vile deed goes unpunished then it would mean that an unarmed black teen was killed in the deep south and the killer wasn't arrested. That would feel familiar to those of us above the Mason Dixon line.

I sez, third, that I hope for Justice for Trayvon's family.

And finally, I sez, that while Obama doesn't need to get involved it might not hurt to remind Americans what a destructive force racism can be.

ADDENDUM: Today president Obama did weigh in on the tragedy and you can view his comments below. I think it was important for him to comment publicly on this, because it might temper a violent response, by restoring public faith in the rule of Law.

An apple that rolled far from the tree

In this article Mitt Romney is compared and contrasted with his father George.

Article here

The GOP base seems truly to despise Romney while being most responsible for elevating him.

Who benefits more from capital gains tax cuts than vulture capitalists like Mitt Romney? Who benefits more from weak regulators than corporations like those Mitt invests in?
Who benefits more from government hand-outs than men like Mitt who always seem to have their hand out?

I've never believed Republicans capable of disliking someone like Mitt. He is the icon of their coddling is he not? He is the arch-type, the mold, the prototype, for baron of capitalism and benefactor of Republican policy for decades.

Did Republicans really fight to enrich people like Romney with every breath, every bill, every veto, intransigence, and all that noise, without knowing the fruits of their labors?

Wow.

Hardly surprising

I have posted before that I think psychopathic personalities, or morally insane people, would naturally be drawn to Wall Street. The reason is simple, they are driven by lust for power and clearly that is where power in America lies.

This new study posits that an extraordinary number of psychopaths (1 in 10) do work on Wall Street.

1 in 10!

Turn-of-the-century economists like Keynes seemed to take this for granted when they advocated tying CEO wealth to corporate wealth. The idea was, it seems to me, to leverage the skills of the morally insane for the greater good (or at least the good of capital).

Now, however, things have broken down as CEOs manage to enrich themselves no matter the state of the companies they direct. Until Washingtonians restore accountability to profitability there is a high probability of continued American decline.

If a cherry tree falls, and nobody saw?

President Obama is treating Super-PAC money the way he treats every other moral dilemma. He says, to paraphrase, "I will not keep my word because of Republican behavior".

Source: Presidential about-face

One of his first promises to American voters was that he would close the Guantanamo gulag. He would do this in his first year, but it turned out that Republicans wouldn't let him and that was that.

I was reminded of how offensive Guantanamo is to the foundational ideas that made America great when reading an article on unpersons in unhistory by Noam Chomsky. Here is an excerpt that personalizes what Guantanamo means to a human being, and what the president's promise-breaking entails:

"the first Guantanamo case to come to trial under President Obama: that of Omar Khadr, a former child soldier accused of the heinous crime of trying to defend his Afghan village when it was attacked by U.S. forces. Captured at age 15, Khadr was imprisoned for eight years in Bagram and Guantanamo, then brought to a military court in October 2010, where he was given the choice of pleading not guilty and staying in Guantanamo forever, or pleading guilty and serving only 8 more years. Khadr chose the latter."

Source: Anniversaries from "Unhistory"

This is like George Washington shrugging when asked about a fabled cherry tree, is it not?

Addendum: Kevin Drum is a writer I respect and he takes a different view of the Super-PAC story. Here is a link to his viewpoint:

Not hypocrisy

Hey may be right up to a limit, and that limit might be drawn by the consequences of your actions on others.

When you take bribes you validate bribery. So the question is, does validating the actions of people like Jack Abramoff harm society more than it will benefit from another four years of president Obama?

Time will tell, but my instincts tell me no.

Warm wind

What's the biggest lie that president Obama told in his State of the Union address last night?

We've put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again.

Source: POTUS SOTUA

American excellence in health care costs

Sarah Kliff has an interesting chart posted at Wonk Blog which shows how bad care-inequality is in America:

Source

Following her source to the OECD I found this quote:

"In the U.S., 42 percent reported not visiting a doctor, not filling a prescription, or not getting recommended care. This is twice the rate for every other country but Australia, New Zealand, and Germany."

What is dangerous about this is disease only gets stronger when treated with half-measures. It is where penicillin-resistant strains come from.

Will the masters of America ever realize that their own health depends upon public health, and that disease doesn't grant pardons?

The clown-car called the GOP doesn't have an answer for this except to say, "Pay more or die".

Keep Wall Street Occupied

Here is a simple way to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement

Occupy Wall Street

Wanna see a great video on #OWS?



Wanna read a great article about what motivates #OWS?

Cheat, Cheat, never beat

Have people finally had enough of the fascialist (fascism/socialism is domination of government by a ruling class) governance that is currently tear-gassing peacefully assembled people petitioning their government for redress?

We are at the point that the very idea of America is being pepper-sprayed, cuffed, and jailed. Can it be resurrected? It'll take the morality of the common good. The belief that out of many, we are one, that together we are stronger if we work towards something higher than our own narrow concerns.

Screw the middle class

Biden: The "middle class has been screwed"

Moe: "Yes, and on your watch too."

Like a wet blanket

Al-Qaeda's central strategy was to draw its Western foes into economically ruinous wars in Muslim lands

Source

That is something worth remembering as we look back on 911 and forwards on our budget.

Exceptional incompetence

Here is an opinion piece from the New York Times that I quite like. It is called, "What Happened to Obama's Passion?" and you can read it here:

History's Arc


Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite:

"...when faced with the greatest economic crisis, the greatest levels of economic inequality, and the greatest levels of corporate influence on politics since the Depression, Barack Obama stared into the eyes of history and chose to avert his gaze"

People are still charitable towards Obama, a sentiment I cannot rally in myself. They see him as misguided but pitted against the forces that supported his presidential campaign handsomely. They see him as a man struggling with exceptional incompetence, I guess, to overcome the forces of evil which were his largest campaign donors.

I assume that believing the obvious is too painful, and so people make up stories with better narrative. The obvious is that Obama isn't on your side, doesn't intend to be on your side, and lies to you every time he pretends to be on your side. You keep falling for this obvious deception because you find it comforting to believe your presidential vote was correct, but for exceptional incompetence.

America is being methodically destroyed, for as go her finances so goes her military, for as goes her middle-class so goes her stability. America will suffer the death of a 1000 cuts and Obama will wield the sword with the pride that goeth before the fall.

The soft bigotry of low expectations

I've talked to plenty of democrats that claim president Obama is doing his best to promote democratic values in a hostile environment, but I have been unable to swallow this fork-full of bull-crap. The president knows the policies he passes comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. Here is an unambiguous statement he made recently, which demonstrates he knows what he is doing before he fails to act:

"If you don't have revenues, it means you're putting more of a burden on the people who can least afford it."

- President Obama -

The president has veto power, and he has support in the Senate, and he has the support of the electorate (even 66% of Tea Party members supported revenue increases if accompanied by spending cuts). If he fails to act it is not because he is a lone guppie in a bowl full of large-mouth bass. If he fails to act it is because he lacks the will to do what needs to be done.

Obama and the economy

Perhaps, now that the Bush-Obama economy is still sputtering, job-killing, and larded with favors like too-big-to-jail it is time for everyone to admit the Chicago School of Economics is mostly wishful thinking directed at the comfortable.

Is there an example of a country penny-pinching its way out of a liquidity trap? Greek austerity efforts aren't helping, and in fact seem to be applying downward pressure to Germany's economy.

President Obama either enjoys comforting the comfortable, or else is caught in the headlights of the on-rushing economy.

The art of lying

Crude lying is simply making false statements. This type of lying falls flat or is quickly rejected. The secret to sophisticated lying, or sophistry, is making false statements that your audience wishes to believe is true.

The converse of this thought is true as well. Upton Sinclair put it like this, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." In other words, it can be just as difficult to spread Truth as it is to spread lies.

When I look at the modern GOP, and specifically the Tea Party element, I see people that believe you don't need taxes to balance a budget, and that people left to their own vices will create a stable society. The first belief leans on the cheapskate in all of us, and the second belief in the inflated opinion of our own self worth.

When I look at the modern Democratic party, and specifically the "centrist democrats", I see people that believe you don't need Justice to have a good society, and that jobs will come when the tycoon class is properly coddled. The first belief is rooted in the desire for campaign contributions and the second belief is rooted in the desire for campaign contributions.

There is an old saying that you can't share wisdom and it isn't accurate. It is more accurate to say that wisdom is easy to share but easier to ignore.

I fear we are ignoring too much wisdom these days to last for much longer.

Turn off the Fox News

There is an expression that goes like this, "Those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it." The converse is usually assumed to be true, that is, that those who know the past can prevent the worst elements from manifesting themselves again.

Here is a quote from the past that I find relevant to contemporary American affairs:


The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Henry A. Wallace, 1944

Sophistrication

In this article by Fareed Zakaria, it is posited that Conservatives used to base their policies on sound reality-driven assessments. I am more inclined to believe they have always whored for monied interests and taken as much as they could get for their constituents. It is just that, in times like these, there is no pushback and the taking knows no restraints.

Perhaps I am being uncharitable. Fareed, to his credit, looks at the ideology of his party and searches for the substance behind the doctrine. When he doesn't find any he does not soften the blows that come from reason.

For instance, he says:

Taxes — federal and state combined — as a percentage of GDP are at their lowest level since 1950. The U.S. is among the lowest taxed of the big industrial economies. So the case that America is grinding to a halt because of high taxation is not based on facts but is simply a theoretical assertion.

Conservatives gone wild

The uncharitable view of this revelation is that Republicans are not so much wrong on their facts as spinning them, but of late need not trouble themselves with the masks that come from sophistry.

The pledge

There is an old saying, "If you don't change direction you will go where you are headed."

What is Grover Norquist's tax pledge driving America towards?

Financial Oligarchy

I wonder how he has so much influence, it's like all these Congressional people can't read maps.

Wondering...

I wonder if the Nobel prize committee can take back what it gave president Obama?

He is lawlessly fighting one war in Libya, using drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen, maintaining the Gulag Guantanamo (interestingly, the phrase "enemy non-combatant" marks it as such), and seems to think peace is a thing best delivered in the nosecone of a cruise missile.

Domestically he is working hand-in-wallet with plutocrats and fascists, ignoring laws when it suits him, and investing heavily in warfare while cutting aid to school aged children.

If these are the actions of a "peace prize" laureate, then the Nobel committee would better spend their time crafting urinals.

Big top

Republican presidential candidates are apparently having a political debate tonight. My only question is, "Will they all enter via the same tiny car?" I love it when clowns do that.

Horrific Maine mystery solved

For days the people of Maine were alarmed that a dead child was left on a small communities' road, with nobody reporting him missing, and police unable to identify him.

It turns out that the boys mother, a woman from Texas, confessed to suffocating her son. She has been charged with second-degree murder.

Boy's mother confesses

I'm sure parents in the area will rest a little easier knowing there isn't a dangerous child predator among them.

If ever there were a case for hating the crime, but not the criminal, this is it. Is it possible to conceive of a punishment worse than facing these actions?

It is time to be thankful if you were born to loving parents.

American wealth

I look at CEOs a bit differently than most people. For me, CEOs are to the rightful profit of investors as pedophiles are to the children of others. When an investor sticks with a company and bears the risk of that investment, a parasitic leach should not lavish himself upon the proceeds of a good upbringing.

When "the street" whines about regulation that is too restrictive, I like to think of a pedophile complaining about law enforcement that is too restrictive. That kind of whining most Americans know how to treat.

Profit belongs to the risk takers as surely as innocence belongs to the children.

Running Races

Sung to the tune of Camptown Races by Stephen Foster

I'll tell you folks how it will be
Doo-da, Doo-da
I'll lie all day and you'll vote for me.
Oh, de doo-da day

Goin' to run all night
Goin' to run all day
My campaign promises mean nothing
Oh, de doo-da day

Guantanamo is open still.
Do dah. Do dah.
Obamacare is a lousy bill.
Oh, do dah day.

Goin' to run all night
Goin' to run all day
My campaign promises: wink, wink, wink
Oh, de doo-da day

The Paper Tiger

Here is a line from George Lakoff's analysis of president Obama's speech, called "The country we believe in", that resonates well with me:

"The fact is that the rich have gotten rich because of the government -- direct corporate subsidies, access to publicly-owned resources, access to government research, favorable trade agreements, roads and other means of transportation, education that provides educated workers, tax loopholes, and innumerable government resources taken advantage of by the rich, but paid for by all of us."

Source

I think that if we had a president that we could believe in we might have something. I have noticed, time and again, that president Obama serves Wall Street exclusively. This was highlighted by the BP oil spill, for which no laws have been passed, by The Great Recession, for which no bad reckless deed went unpunished, and total silence on labor issues.

If it weren't for the GOP's field of candidates for the top job, Obama could not sink any lower in my esteem. It's a pity, since on paper he is a tiger.

I believe that if George Lakoff says this speech is important for the vision it projects, then voters ought to read the speech. They must guard against getting their hopes up, however.

Jesse "The Body" Ventura

Jesse has a new book coming out. Here is an interview on Russia Today (of all places). He advocates voting for "anyone else beside Democrats and Republicans".

What's up with Libya?

Have people in Washington just lost their minds?

What national interest is at stake that would make president Obama pick the weak side in a civil war and make Congress abdicate all oversight responsibility?

And how crazy are Republicans going to get? During three wars they seem elated about shutting down the government!

Some days it is hard to open your eyes.

"Where free unions and collective bargaining is forbidden, freedom is lost."

Former president Ronald Reagan

Link to the video: From the Gipper's lips

Have workers in America "had it"?

Do we have 400 Mubarak's ruling in America?

Here is Michael Moore speaking at a rally in Wisconsin:

Egypt

I thought of a simple rally cry for Egyptians:

"Fuck Mu"

The situation in Egypt can be mathematically expressed like this:

Barak * Mubarak = Mubarak²


It seems that president Obama has managed to make himself a disappointment to believers in democracy all over the world.

Walls and bridges

When president Ronald Reagan said to Mr. Gorbachev, "Tear down that wall." he was demonstrating an understanding of the moment and stepping into it. His message was simple, direct, and memorable.

As Egyptians rally for democratic rule and to escape the domination of Mubarak, what is president Barak Obama's message to the world?

If president Obama were president instead of Ronald Reagan would he have had a message for Mr Gorbachev?

The thing about a moment is, it doesn't last very long. Well, unless you embrace it, then people never forget it.

God's Will

I've always found it impossible to understand extreme selfishness and manic power lust, but in Mubarak's case I find it pitiful as well as perplexing.

This man has always put his own priorities (hanging on) above all else (Justice, Love, Human Dignity) , but to be decrepit from age and clinging with a skeletal hand at such a time is a sad, pathetic commentary on his state of mind.

One rationale that religious people offer for their beliefs is the notion of "free will choices". The argument goes something like this, "Yes there is evil in the world, but it is because God wants us to have free will." In my opinion this argument gets them out of the skillet to stand in the fire, as it means the will of the rapist is just as important to God as the will of the victim, and that the will of the tyrant supersedes that of an oppressed population.

Is the free will of a geriatric tyrant so important?

What ails America?

In Egypt the people are taking to the streets demanding democratic freedoms and American leaders are backing the dictator.

Wasn’t there a time when Americans believed in the right of the People to rule themselves? Wasn’t there a time in America when freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and equal protection under the law meant something more than two gold coins rubbed together?

Has dollar worship polluted our spirit?

MLK Quote

One of my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes is:

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

My all-time favorite is:

"We have guided missiles and misguided men"

Both of these quotes make you realize that there is something structurally wrong with the way we have organized our society. We give up too much happiness to inflict too much pain, and that is a fool's bargain.

What nobody is saying

Isn't it time for the National Rifle Association to back a bill that will keep guns out of the hands of lunatics?

I support gun ownership, but that doesn't mean I think criminals and insane people need unhindered access to automatic weapons.

There is a do not fly list, how about a do not allow this person to buy a gun list?

There can be clear-cut rules for getting people on and off the list, with an appeals process.

We have to start repairing some of the damage to our society and that means reasonable approaches to solving problems. I have heard the tired old canard that if guns are illegal only criminals will have guns. Well, I'd like to see a system where criminals didn't have guns but law abiding people did. That means some type of list.

Hunting is a way of life for many people and we should be able to encourage that without making it easy for lunatics bearing grudges to gun down children.

A good place to start with the list is to look at the recent rampage in Arizona and ask, "What would have stopped this guy?"

William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Easy to see, hard to stop

For a very brief time the use of incendiary political rhetoric will be tut-tutted. Immediately after that period such rhetoric will become headline-grabbing, and attention-obsessed people like Sarah Palin will step into that “opportunity”.

No patience

After a nine year old girl has been murdered I’ve no patience with people that identify as Repulicans and who defend Sarah Palin or listen to Glenn Beck.

At best Sarah Palin is a careless, ignorant woman, obsessed with self-promotion at any cost. She condones  violent behavior by using violent speech, using violent imagery, and tolerating violent behavior in her supporters.

Glenn Beck would be laughable if not for the size of his audience. He might be a jackass braying in a field, but he influences a sizeable crowd that stops to bray back.

This is the time for the “moderate” GOP members to put up or shut up. Either you get control of your party, or your party will get control of you.

Cajun water

I can't say why, but I was passing some time trying to come up with an expression for salesmanship similar to, "So-and-so is such a good salesman he could sell a nun a baby carriage."

Here is what I came up with, applied to Bill Clinton:

"Bill Clinton could sell powdered water to a Cajun."

A reminder

Here is the final scene from "The Great Dictator" by Charlie Chaplin.



The machine men are as tireless as they are tiresome, but they are mortal nonetheless.

Pin the tail

George Lakoff is one of the few messaging maestros that I like to read. In a recent article he writes:

" If conservatives succeed in cutting government by the people for the public good, our lives will still be governed, but now by corporations. We will have government by corporations for corporate profit. It will not be a kind government. It will be a cruel government, a government of foreclosures, outsourcing, union busting, outrageous payments for every little thing, and pension eliminations."

Source

It is a well written article and I recommend you read it. It was so well written it made me believe, at least for a little while, that the problem with the democratic party was messaging.

What I truly believe is that their messaging was sufficient to get them elected in droves, but their natures  dispirited a once-hopeful movement. Caesar learned that betrayal cuts deep and I fear the emptiness of spirit I see everywhere. If Brutus Obama really knew how much everyone was ashamed of him he might be less smug in his betrayal.

A mole by any other name

The president Obama is doing such a thorough job of turning opportunity into defeat for the democratic party that I am starting to wonder if he is a GOP mole.

He is costing the party money

He is costing the party credibility:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

He is dividing the party by routinely inflaming supporters.

His actions suggest that he believes in his bones in the right of corporations to rule.

He is essentially doing those things that a good GOP mole would, isn't he?

A divorce made in heaven

The president Obama seems to enjoy betraying  his supporters.


The president Obama doesn't want me.

He is either a fool or a tool and I believe the latter.

Felicity

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

How many of our modern papers would rather coddle corruptors rather than expose them? How many will sit idly by as Julian Assange is railroaded into prison for publishing leaked documents? How many would refuse to publish the epic Napalm Girl photo? How many refused to publish the Danish cartoons?



What is being lost, and what is being gained?

Drowning, not waving

The Obama administration is flailing about in the political waters while our "ship of state" is sinking.

My advice is this, "find the people that were wrong and replace them with people that were right."

For instance...

Paul Krugman said from the beginning of the financial crisis that the stimulus was too small to be effective, and as soon as the first wave of spending ran out the recovery would stagnate. He was right and even the Fed seems to concede the point via its recent actions.

Howard Dean is a fighter that knows the democratic party doesn't have to concede defeat in every red state, and on every issue. His 50-state strategy was a huge success and he was quickly thrown under the bus.

Kevin Drum keeps offering reasonable solutions on Healthcare, on Social Security, and on tax issues.

Washington is broken because what works cannot be spoken of and what doesn't is courted with polished shoes and dirty deals. A president must advocate throatily for what is right to be an agent of Change.

There is no  Greatness without Goodness.

Quotable

"One of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population"

Noam Chomsky

Source: Democracy Now, November 30th, 2010

In the name of clean energy

News like this makes me wish GOP charges against Obama (i.e. that he is "liberal" or a "socialist") had an ounce of merit:

"In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found."

Polluting our way to prosperity

Obama never spent a day in the whitehouse representing the interests of liberals.

Of capes and spandex

Something tells me that democrats would fare far better politically if they listened to people like Roy Temple, who makes the case for heroic narratives:

How heroes help

The more I think over what Mr. Temple has to say, the more I am convinced he is spot-on.

I suppose I would add to his analysis that a hero needs to stand and fight, for instance for a single-payer health-care system, to have any credentials in support of heroic rhetoric. Superman wasn't one to compromise with Lex Luthor.

A porno scanner solution

My solution to the porno-scanner fury is twofold:

1. Let people keep their shoes on if they use the porno scanner (at least this cuts down on inconvenience - which is trebled for the elderly).

2. The scanners would be doing TSA a favor, as well as making the scanners less offensive to people, if they didn't produce a body image. I can say with confidence that a gun floating in mid-air is more noticeable than one sandwiched between a pair of breasts.

I have no idea if number one is feasible, I guess it depends if the porno-scanner can notice whatever the carry-on scanner notices. Number 2, however is self-evidently doable because what can see skin can choose to ignore it.

Chris Hedges

Christopher Hedges is writing powerfully these days.  In a recent article, he writes:

"We have reached a point where stunted and deformed individuals, whose rapacious greed fuels the plunge of tens of millions of Americans into abject poverty and misery, determine the moral fiber of the nation. It is no more morally justifiable to kill someone for profit than it is to kill that person for religious fanaticism. And yet, from health companies to the oil and natural gas industry to private weapons contractors, individual death and the wholesale death of the ecosystem have become acceptable corporate business."

You can read the entire piece here: Tiny acts of Rebellion

Obama's servitude to Wall Street crystalized America's decline for me like nothing else could. As I watch he and spiritless democratic leaders abandon hard working people to people that are simply hard, it does not evoke Hope in my breast.

I suppose Christopher's writing speaks to me in a language I can relate to these days. He seems to see clearly what I see and rail against it, and sometimes that is all you can do.

Video TSA

Bashing the TSA through song...

On the wings of a dove

Apparently American travelers are fed up with "porno scanners" and "groping searches" by TSA agents at airports. Apparently, the head of TSA is tin-eared about it. Apparently, congress postured haughtily on the subject, then did nothing.

Read all about it

My view is that these measures wouldn't have stopped 911 because box-cutters were perfectly legal. They are useless techniques on pilots, who can crash the planes if they wish. Flying was unpleasant already and now it is getting more expensive in order to fund the increasing unpleasantness.

I suppose when the privacy invasion becomes  intrusive enough people will stop flying altogether and al Qaeda and TSA can both claim victory.

Slop bucket of shame

As George Bush sells books and Sarah Palin coins "Words of the Year", I am reminded that American greatness isn't what it used to be.

We are becoming a nation of shabby-minded, tax-gripers with no vison for the future. We wage war,  not to make the world safe for democracy or defend our allies, but rather to feed the beast. While solutions to some of our problems stagnate on the vine, we busy ourselves closing our eyes to bigger challenges. Gone are the dreams of Liberty for All, replaced with trips to the mall.  Gone are the fighting dems, replaced with dem pushovers. Gone are true conservative Republicans, by which I mean civic-minded lovers of tradition who weren't so bedazzled by money as to betray their own children to the catastrophic effects of Global Warming.

The president Obama, he was visionary until he grasped the Power. Then he became another schmuck in a long line of schmucks, betraying hard-working Americans to ingratiate himself at the slop-bucket of the aristocrats. His words are unheeded because they reek of corruption, and his actions go silently into that good night because they are as nothing to the People.

And where are we going?


Is it to a place where work is rewarded and even the least among us have access to opportunity?

Shall earnest destroyers, portraying themselves as saviors, be trusted with atomic weapons?

It is in moods like this that it strikes me as fitting the milky way galaxy resembles a flushing toilet.

Quantitative Easing Explained

Here is the sidewalk version of what happened to the US economy

Take away

Since many commentators are busy broadcasting "Take Away" messages for the democrats in the face of November's losses,  I thought I might add mine.


Don't piss off your base.

For two years the Obama administration treated their base like they were contagious, and it isn't surprising they stayed home because of it.

More words are unecessary.

A terrific interview with Jimmy Carter

Interview with former President Jimmy Carter

Jon Stewart's closing speech

Jon Stewart's closing speech at the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear":

For whom the bell tolls

Chris Hedges has written an article about the death of Liberalism in America, specifically as it relates to the Democratic party.

Hollow shell of a party

He writes with passion these days and seems to be striving to call people to action. I'm not sure what that action is, and perhaps neither does he.

I think that ripping on Liberals is doing Wall Street a favor, and blaming liberals for Wall Streets actions is like blaming a rape victim. Of course, it is hard not to be disgusted by the actions of Democratic party members as they turn so much hope into so much refuse.

Once decline gets to a certain point you're like an easy mark surrounded by hustlers when all you want is to work, eat, and love.

From Frum

 

David Frum has an interesting post about California’s Proposition 23, which he attacks as a job killing bill.

Here is the link: Opposition to the Proposition

Mr. Frum’s bread has been buttered with Scientific methods and I suspect his own achievements led to a respect for scientific opinion. With so many Republicans carrying torches against the book-learnin’ I find his voice refreshing.

Got enthusiasm?

Are you looking for a reason to vote?

Here it is:

Something other than conventional wisdom.

I sez, "The trouble for D.C. democrats isn't an apathetic base, but the opposite."

If the base were apathetic it wouldn't care that Guantanamo is still open for business.

If the base were apathetic it wouldn't care that president Obama didn't deliver a single-payer health-care system.

If the base were apathetic it wouldn't care that conservative economic policies failed America, but democrats ceded the moment to fill the vacuum.

If the base were apathetic it wouldn't care that D.A.D.T. was not repealed.

If D.C. democrats are hunting for an enthusiasm gap, they should look between campaign pledges and legislative action. That is the same place, coincidentally, where they can locate a solution to their dilemma.

From "Yes we can" to "they won't even worse"?

The election strategy concocted by D.C. Democrats for the upcoming mid-term election can be summarized as follows:

"You could do even worse than vote for us"

Does that sound like a winning strategy?

Colbert in Congress

Stephen Colbert goes to Congress in character:

Pinata

Jon Stewart is on the mark in this clip, which covers a "town hall" meeting recently attended by president Obama:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Meet the Depressed
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Source

Mind the enthusiasm gap

I always enjoy when someone takes the time to simplify tortured logic and feed it to me straight. For instance, while lunching with the upper-crusts of Connecticut, president Obama bashed his base. Some idiotic D.C.-thinkers tried to justify the pool-pissing moment, but David Sirota describes it like so:

"The president has decided to not even acknowledge the legitimacy of Democratic voters' expectations - many of which he himself asked us embrace in his "real change"-themed campaign for the presidency. That's right, just as White House press secretary Robert Gibbs attacked the "Professional Left" a few weeks ago, the president has decided to make fun of Democratic voters who dare expect him to fight for the policies he promised. "

Here is a link to the whole article.

Happy Dam a Rahm

If democrats lose as projected in November, will president Obama continue to praise those responsible and continue to cast aspersions at the left?

Bad economic news

Whenever I hear the word economist used in the same sentence as Chicago I shudder involuntarily. Chicago economists, in my view, are responsible for shuddering Main Street and turning Wall Street into a casino backed with public money. I am not a fan of president Obama's latest pick to chair his Council of Economic Advisors, Austan Goolsbee.

Isn't it interesting that Mr. Goolsbee is described as a "Centrist Economist" in the story above?

Have you ever heard of a "Centrist Mathemetician", "Centrist Surgeon", or "Centrist Rocket Scientist"?

This political appointment signifies that president Obama continues to place his faith in those most responsible for creating the crisis. That is very bad news since spin doesn't pay the bills.

Not flaming crosses?

The Dove World Outreach Center, a Baptist church, plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11.

Religious people seem to enjoy prancing around the frontiers of hatred. Perhaps for an encore they can drop their trousers and moon Mecca?

Hypocrisy alert

Where were all the deficit hawks when Bush was in office?

Dog days

It is a difficult thing to watch the Obama administration in action these days. So many people thought they were electing the next Jack Kennedy and wound up electing a president without a strong sense of purpose, without the ability to control the narrative, and without the necessary toughness to make his words real for the middle-class.

Even as it becomes crystal clear that voters are going to punish this administration for doing too little, president Obama is out there promoting tax cuts for corporations (see here).

Many on the left cling to fantasies that president Obama is being misled by his handlers, but I believe it is they who were misled. The president's actions consistently convey that he believes in the right of corporations to rule, and will only make token gestures on behalf of the middle class.

Fish in a barrel

The finding of articles that support my theory that the position of CEO is attractive to morally insane people (or psychopathic personalities) is a job that is all too easy. Here, though, is an article which practically begs the interpretation:

Massey Energy's Blankenship: No shame, but plenty of blame

This is a man that lets no evil outcome deter his purpose or actions. He refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and not only fails to pity those his actions have killed, he manages to feel sorry for himself to boot.

Not news

The tax-cuts passed by president Bush did not have a stimulative effect on the economy.

Spending American greatness for a tax cut is cheap.

The urgency of combating global warming is in direct disproportion to political activity, while being in direct proportion to carbon-fuel subsidies.

Our all-volunteer armed forces can no longer operate without the use of mercenaries (thugs).

Death panels have been operating inside for-profit insurance companies for years. They call their sentences "recission".

Sarah Palin lies a lot, is mean-spirited, and not good at governing.

Fox is to news as Glenn Beck is to a newscaster.

Obama's poll numbers explained

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll this week found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and a majority disapproves of President Obama’s handling of the economy. Nearly two-thirds expect the economy to get worse still.

Source

Unsurprisingly, turning the treasury over to the reprobates that engineered the crisis is bad economics and bad politics.

Unsurprisingly, trading the support of Democrats to court Republicans gains neither crucial votes nor enthusiastic supporters.

A president should not put up with a team that achieves such ignoble results.

Obama's poll numbers explained

Voting is primarily an emotional decision for voters, and nothing highlights this like a poll which finds...

"In numerous polls, the public has voiced their displeasure at the much maligned bank bailout, but most don't know which president signed the controversial act into law. Only a third of Americans (34%) correctly say the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was enacted by the Bush administration"

Source

People are angry and they know what for, but not whom to blame.

President Obama hasn't done much to reverse this public perception, making him a far worse politician than I thought.

Obama's poll numbers explained...

I am always on the lookout for quotes that illustrate why the poll numbers for president Obama are so low. I think this one by Brent Budowski nails it:

Voters pray for action, but all they hear is self-praise from those who don’t listen, and all they see is vanity and self-indulgence from those who don’t care.

Source

Obama's poll numbers explained

Robert Reich writes recently...

Average Americans are hurting. But their pain isn’t coming from government. It’s coming from an economy whose benefits are concentrating ever more at the top, whose giant corporations are controlling ever more of our democratic process, and whose costs and risks are becoming ever more burdensome for the middle class and the poor. Public schools, parks, and libraries are closing or reducing hours and staff. Median hourly wages are dropping. Unemployment is at levels not seen in decades; long-term joblessness hasn’t been this bad since the 1940s. Social safety nets — unemployment insurance, Social Security, and Medicare — are endangered.

Yet corporate profits are reaching unprecedented levels, and the richest Americans — CEOs, other top corporate executives, investment bankers, and hedge-fund managers — are raking in as much or more than before the Great Recession.

Source

I contend that the movement of money from middle-class Americans to rich Americans was facilitated by politicians every step of the way.

I also contend that the Clinton administration did improve the lot of the middle class and that fact explains his popularity and Obama's unpopularity.

We voters wanted real change not spare change.

More right-wing violence

Here is yet another example of a violent gun-toting white guy spewing right-wing ideology:

Raymond Peake

I wonder if a little fox was whispering in his ears?

The ties that bind

What unites Byron Williams (the man who loaded up his truck with guns in order to shoot up a non-profit organization) with the Pentagon shooter, the Holocaust Museum gunman, the pilot who flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, and the Pittsburgh cop-killer?

Right-wing ideology that's what.

No you can't

I'm all for getting illegal immigrants out of the country, and I'm doubly for getting criminal-minded illegal immigrants out. My support stops with measures that are cruel or treats law-abiding citizens as criminals.

So, I oppose the Arizona law for being hard on citizens, not because it is hard on immigrants. Those people are here illegally, eroding wages, and should be deported. I'm also in favor of jailing the businesses that hire them.

Unlike the folks at Huffington Post, I cotton to this new federal approach which screens fingerprints collected as people are arrested. You can read about it here:

Extra-criminal behavior

Why should we welcome someone that is here illegally and has been arrested on top of it? What's in it for us?

Obama's poll numbers explained

Despite frantic Tea Party exhalations, objective measures say that the Obama administration is tougher on illegal immigration than George W. Bush. For instance...

"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007."


Source

While the Tea Party continues to disparage president Obama anyway, he is engaging himself in activities which annoy his base.

Do democrats in Washington spend all their time cooking up schemes that are self-defeating?

Too Big to Fail

Robert Monks discusses the effectiveness of the new financial regulations with respect to "Too Big to Fail".



Once again president Obama seems to think he can sell a weak bill that is primarily a concession as "sweeping" reform. Once again he uncle tom'd his base without a spirited defense of their values.

Quick Krugman

"The only problem Republicans ever had with George W. Bush was his low approval rating."

- Paul Krugman -

Source

Say it plain

Sometimes, if you say a thing plainly it is easier to understand. In Afghanistan we hear the following from the Pentagon:

If we are not successful in Afghanistan it means we need more troops.
If we are successful it means we need to stay indefinitely.

Is it patriotic to defend America to the point it can no longer pay for schools?

Is the Fed playing Obama for a sucker?

The more I see experienced economists like Robert Reich (i.e. here), and Paul Krugman (i.e. here), raising alarm bells over the economy in conjunction with inaction by "The Fed", the more I find myself wondering if "The Fed" is deliberately putting the brakes on the economy.

Why would that be?

Perhaps president Obama is less in-league with Wall Street than I imagine and more easily duped than I imagine.

Maybe, even now, he believes the old Canard about rising tides lifting all boats?

If this is the case Obama might regret continually snubbing his base and courting the imaginary middle. By the time he turns around he may find himself alone.

Wondering...

What banks seem to be doing at the moment is taking advantage of low interest rates set by the fed to buy Treasury bonds. So, they get money for next-to-nothing and a safe return on their investment.

But, I've been wondering, could we be setting up a Treasury bond bubble?

Should taxpayer money be used to enrich a finance industry that doesn't lend?

It's a good gig, but how can it last?

Obama's poll numbers explained

"71% say that they don't care what economists were saying, that we're still in a recession"

Source

Obama's poll numbers explained

When Wall Street wants money it gets bipartisan support, lightning quick action, and no constraints.

When those unemployed as a result of Wall Street's actions want assistance, Blue Dogs have tin ears.

Obama's poll numbers explained

When the GOP is in the majority, they get their way. When the GOP is in the minority, they get their way.

Little Cat Feet

Both the democratic and republican parties have abandoned their historical agendas in order to promote corporate interests. Historically the usurpation of government by corporate power is known as Fascism, and it looks a lot like the BP spill.

One mitigating factor of corporate power is populist power, or more properly, democratic power. When the right of the People to rule is not a word on a page, or a blog, but a reality, then there is pushback against abuses of corporate power.

Instead we get treated to sad sycophantic displays of politicians apologizing to BP for being asked to take responsibility for its actions.

Instead we get a president that claims to respect the rule of law clutching undemocratic powers to his chest.

Instead we get bailouts for bank-robbers, rather than jail sentences.

To understand this trend a little better, you might wish to read a new article by Jim Hightower:

Reclaim populism

Chicago

Chicago-style economics promotes class warfare in such a way that adherents feel virtuous about plundering. It seems to have finally succeeded to the point where "consumers" (citizens) have lost their "confidence" (money).

It is obvious that increasing "confidence" means putting money in "consumers" pockets, or else finding different "consumers". Because of this, I expect America's next great export to China shall be Chicago-style economics.

America shall become another day older and deeper in debt.

Quick hit

Wall Street and the other biggest global banks, meanwhile, are making piles of money betting against government debt all over the world.

Source

When simple remedies to America's problems evade implementation, then you know America is circling the drain. Is it too much to ask for legislators to stop pulling on the handle?