Villification

A recent FB exchange after I posted the above:

• Jeffrey Craig Simon Almost ALL of the media is owned by a few mega-huge corporations. They of course have a "right" bias. The GOP strategy is to tell a lie, then repeat it over and over and over again, until people begin to think it must be true....but it is still a lie. Tons of research shows the media has a center to right bias.
  

  Monday at 12:10pm ·
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  Cleat Edmonson Yes!! That's it exactly. It just gets harder to talk to the brainwashed bunch when they repeat this particular lie over and over again.
  

  Monday at 4:40pm ·
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  Michael Dodd You guys really think that the GOP is despicable don't you? Does that mean that individual Republicans are despicable or just ignorant fools?
  

  18 hours ago ·
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  Cleat Edmonson It means there is a trade off that we are no longer willing to ignore. Your straw argument is not real... there are always more than two choices. And, yes, for the most part what the "party" has become IS despicable, Mike, since there is no longer a willingness to work with or actually negotiate with others. That's pretty much why I can no longer be a Republican.
  

  17 hours ago ·
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  Michael Dodd
  

  What I am saying is that I am offended by your lumping most Republicans together (and I certainly am a Republican) as a brainwashed bunch (your words). Whatever, to mention a few things that the "liberal media" didn't bother to cover much, was Obama's ties with Ayers and Wright and Alinsky's book. Is that all a bunch of lies? You should be specific when you refer to the lies. Remember what Wittgenstein always said: "examples, we need examples." When you say that the GOP won't negotiate with the Democrat party, you should, if possible, give the point of view of the GOP, as certainly the GOP should do when giving their opponents point of view. I grant you that my argument was a straw man, something Obama uses quite frequently. You may despise George Bush but at least he gave his political opponents credit for honestly disagreeing with him, rather than do as Obama always does, accuse his opponents of playing politics when they don't agree with him, always putting hiimself in the position of the righteous one, the serious one. I believe it can be difficult to talk about politics; passions run high, and there is good reason for that. We disagree about some really important things: what the nature and aims of our country should be, how government should function, whether liberty or security is more important, or how we can balance those two ideas. I don't think Democrats or liberals or progressives are despicable by nature. I've known you for more than 30 years now, and have always esteemed you for quite a few reasons. You surprise me by your political views but I know you can do a lot better than sound so intemperate. 
  15 hours ago ·
  
  
  
  

   

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    Cleat Edmonson
    

    Mike, so much of what you say is untrue!! It is hard to start... especially in this venue. Your take on Obama is seriously flawed. It has consistently been the Repub's who have twisted the who did what to whom in the current wranglings. Obama often cites the differences and acknowledges those differences saying that the Repub's need to offer a solution not simply attack an offered plan or, worse, an offered compromise. GWB and his crowd turned evil... but the worst of the offenders are Tea Party thugs. And, yes, I do say evil. The agenda there is pathetically linked to that of a libertarian (that would be antithetical to traditional republican values) run Koch brothers agenda. The most distorted view of how the country should run is from the likes of the Fox newsers and I have been pummeled into an intolerant view of how much of that sort of nonsense I can listen to. Remember, here we started with Noam Chomsky's exposure of the myth of the liberal media. Really?? It has been demonstrated over and over that the media is not particularly liberal. It is equally demonstrable that the media IS tilted to the right. Republicans aren't despicable individually... but, republican commentators are projecting despicable values and the tea party group are not part of any republican party I can be part of. You are correct that we have known each other for a long time and I am saddened that you are offended by what I think. I will save examples for the blog when I restart it in a bit.
    
    

    So, here is where the rubber meets the road.  Examples: is it examples of right leaning media that is called for?  Is it examples of Republican lies that are in need of examples?

    
    

    From where I sit it is a problem of where to start... there are so many examples of both.  Just yesterday the House Speaker, John Boehner (R), called on the President to solve the dead lock in Congress!!  Can we say, "It is not within the powers of the office of President to do that"??  At every opportunity Senator Mitch McConnell (R) has said that there cannot be a win for anything that the President has asked for from the Legislative branch.  Generally deflecting from their inactivity to pronounce any problem an Obama problem.  This is not just politics.  More later.

Uncorrupting the System

Koch brothers $$$ behind The Pledge

In pondering the question of the Grover Norquist problem I have been getting closer to seeing the bullying as something that is larger than the money he represents.  I mean, he IS all about wielding that wad of cash to “Primary” those running for elected positions.  As he says, he doesn’t directly threaten them (the politicians), he just notes that if those running either don’t sign on to his pledge or go against what his pledge stands for he will carry the message to the voter so that the voter may act.  He said something like this on CBS's 60 Minutes with a smirk on his face and his ego stuck way out in front of the camera.

The first problem is I don’t like bullies.  The second problem is that Norquist represents everything bad that money has done to our political system.  The idea that one person can so thoroughly subvert the system is the opposite of what democracy is and what it stands for.  By extension, it means also that we (this country) no longer have the moral high ground to tell other countries about democracy.  This also means that old boy Grover has access to OUR representatives that normal people do not have.  That he can threaten is a large problem and will not, has refused to, release our elected officials when they have asked him to release them.  To say that, forever, there is no need to raise revenues through taxes is absurd on its face.  Some of these pledges date back to the early 1990’s!!  Over twenty years have come and gone and to imply that nothing has changed… simply stupid.

It hit me recently that what is needed is a short cut to release our politicians from this absurd burden of enforcement by Americans for Prosperity and Grover Norquist.  It’s simple, really, we declare victory and go home… well not exactly.  What The Grover and his ego holds over each politician is money.  He tells them that if they veer from the pledge in even the slightest degree his organization will “Primary” the politician.  It is the ability to use his hidden money to put up opposing candidates of the same party against the incumbent representative.  Here I mean to say that the money is hidden because Norquist’s organization does not have to disclose where the funding comes from!!  That’s right, there is NO disclosure.  The threat would be meaningless if we could GET THE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS.

There is a massive movement afoot to have ONLY publicly funded elections.  If that becomes law and there are penalties, felony conviction assured, for any who either give or take, money or trade outside of the public funding then Norquist goes poof and disappears.

In the meantime here is a release for any who have signed onto and come to regret that decision to join the Norquist pledge:

Pledge for the American Process

Date: ________________

I, ______________, have determined of my own cognizance that the group Americans for Prosperity and specifically Grover Norquist has misled the country through its pledge to accept no present or future tax increases.  This pledge has crippled the political process and debased the people elected to represent their constituency.  As such, I, ________________, do hereby renounce and rescind my former pledge to the Americans for Prosperity.  As a free agent in the process of democracy I now re-pledge my fealty to my constituents and my country.  I agree to pursue the best interests of the United States of America and to listen to and work for those individuals who elected me.

Signed: ______________________

With a Sense of Protest:

This linked story is a straightforward indication of a low information person in a position of authority.  A lot of shame goes to those who hired Lt. Pike (& his ilk) to be anywhere near the young people of this nation.

Lt. Pike gets the A$$hole of the Year Award

Seriously, the U C Davis police force deals with students every day and THIS is what they came up with?  Lt. Pike should resign and await his criminal prosecution and civil claims.  Beyond stupid.

Flavor of the Month & Thought of the Century.

If you look at the field of Republican Candidates the latest to rise in the polls (sort of) is Newt Gingrich.  Here's a little story about this guy and his rather bizarre past (never have liked him much):

Newt as a wasteland.

Beyond that there is this thought; a very dangerous thought.  What may be needed to dig us out of the political morass we are in is a Constitutional Convention (CC).  It is something that is allowed (even called for in some circumstances) to correct large ills should our system ever encounter problems it cannot fix otherwise.  I submit that we may well be at that juncture now.

Before we call for this action we need to understand that once called for the sky is the limit on what can happen.  That is, there may well be multiple ways in which this process can be manipulated and corrupted just as the current system has been.  We might well need a form of internet voting for the CC so that we have a direct voice in this process.  This following TED talk is an example of what is possible that cannot be tampered with:

eVoting without Fraud

We need this to change the process and fix a few things that are seriously broken. A CC can then take up as many suggestions as we can create and tear down the problems to be rebuilt as we wish.

Here are some thoughts on what we can change:

1.  Corporations are not people.  A person is a Natural Person and can never be a corporation or other than a Natural Person.

2.  All elections are publicly financed, period.  Any contributor or recipient stepping outside of this system (by contribution of either cash or trade) is subject to arrest for a Felony and can be jailed (mandatory) for long periods of time in regular (not special) prisons.

3.  All politicians are subject to recall at anytime after their third (or sixth or ninth) month in office.

4.  There would be a National Initiative process available once a year (or X years) and that wording for that initiative must undergo scrutiny by a select panel that must adhere to strict rules for clear understandability and no intent to subvert the intent of the initiative.  The number of signatures required to have an initiative on the ballot must be X% of all eligible voters on a State by State basis.

5.  Reinstate Glass/Steagall and, perhaps, other regulations (broadcast Fairness Doctrine comes to mind) as is deemed helpful in keeping factual content in our news sources.

6.  There are no corporations that are too big to fail.  A death penalty for corporations can be imposed through some legal proceeding that reviews pollution, fraud and other offenses.  Officers of corporations have only limited immunity from prosecution for their acts and the acts of companies they run.

7.  Make a Constitutional Convention mandatory every 30 or 50 years. 

The list can be very lengthy but not all ideas would probably pass.  In fact. I have lots and lots of ideas on what might be included but by now you get the idea.  Pick the things that are broken right now and save others for later via the regular but fixed process. 

The conversation needs to be national in scope and there needs to be a time limit on how long it would go on before items would be brought to a vote (via internet) of the People (not by Representatives).  Get the money out of politics and get the lobbyists out of the process.

Occupy the City Council

In Portland, Oregon and across the river in Vancouver, Washington occupiers have noticed something.  The city governments have contracts with Wells Fargo bank for services.  That is, both cities store their (our) money in the bank and write checks every day from those accounts.

The light has gone on and the protesters have begun a move to demand that governments put the money with regional banks and credit unions.  This massive control, because of the way the banking world works and is intertwined, would not completely keep the money out of the banks BUT it would keep it all on a short leash.  It would also show the cities how much control they have on and over the bank's policies.

In pondering this idea I have to admit that there IS a huge attraction to it.  Occupy the City Councils and demand monetary change that is controlled locally.  I guess I am okay with that.

Use Your Imagination

So, imagine your 84 year old mother or grandmother was supportive of the Occupy Movement and decided to visit the closest Park;

Seattle woman, 84, is pepper sprayed.

Joining the Occupy Movement should not be putting your life or health on the line but it is until the Occupy Movement takes down the Oligarchy and gets fair treatment by the system.

Get the money out of politics.  Get the lobbyists out of Washington.  Get the justice system back to non-activist judges.  Take down the barriers to economic fairness.

Protest in Song

Often it is the artists who get it and come forward with the message... this is such a case.

The Uncertainty Principle

For months now the Republican Party has been pounding the table with their collective shoe and shouting that the reason we aren't creating jobs is that business leaders are uncertain about the future.  Together they are trying to point to a perceived lack of confidence to invest in new jobs.  It has been a major talking point (to quote Herman Cain, "I don't have facts to back this up...") for so long surely we must all believe it.  Once I learned that big business was sitting on $2 trillion in cash reserves I had doubts about this talking point but needed a logic to go with that.  I mean, withholding that much cash from the economy was bound to have a consequence or two.  To not circulate is a decision that a central bank might do to slow an economy and $2T is an amount to contemplate for such a move.  So what was driving this decision?

It turns out that individuals have indeed bought into the scare tactic by the Republicans.  Further withholding cash from the system.  It is, in part, what keeps credit from the system.  When individuals keep cash as deposits in a checking account the banks do not have long term money to lend.  Sure enough, if you compound the big business decision to sit on cash and combine it with cash being held off shore (another $2T) because big business doesn't want to be taxed on it if they bring it home in addition to individual decisions to keep to cash (about $350B) more accessible you take the wind out of the sails of the economy.

Where the money went.

With the Republicans acting to stop government stimulus spending at all cost it seems we have a perfect storm to keep us in a repressed state.  The party of, "NO!" has brought about what a central bank would have a tough time undoing.  It is no accident that big biz is sitting on the cash and it is not uncertainty that is driving it.  Supply-siders have had it all wrong for 30 plus years but as a talking point tool they have found a way to keep the middle class down through this perfect storm.

To reignite the country we need to spend; we can't spend what we don't have the confidence to spend.  The uncertainty is with the smallest group, consumers.  Not big Biz.  Concern for having jobs has driven a large part of this connundrum.  As well it should... we are extremely vulnerable to a more serious crash.

Moving cash from the banks to credit unions has the effect of keeping local control on the money.  We still need that cash to be partially in savings accounts at the CU's to give the cash for the CU's to lend but with local control there is a stronger likelihood that the much needed stimulus will find its way into our economy... and not fall under the influence of the GOtPers saying, "NO!" all the time.

Occupy: Phase Two

 From OWS

There comes a time when the Occupy camps have to step back and reconsider their tactics.  With the police sending the homeless, the drug addicts and mentally ill to the camps the Occupiers have come to see the sense of community has all the challenges of being a community.  In the early stages there were families among the residents but they cleared out as things got more complicated and the children exposed to other, less desirable, elements of the movement.

Pressure to close OWS Camps

This nexus was bound to come about. OWS has built a great community but with all the problems of community. As the homeless, the mentally ill and police drifted into the camps the fact is OWS was not fully prepared to deal with the problems people bring with them. It's really okay though.

We can consider a restructur­e of the movement. Move, cooperativ­ely, out of the camps. Clean up as we go to minimize any damage done. Take with us the lessons of long term occupation­. Get to know the community resources better so that in the coming spring/sum­mer we can come at this again with a better organizati­on.

It would be a good time to productive­ly keep the discussion going, by way of an on-line Occupy, perhaps. Come back at this in the spring with a general strike, marches and more occupy. We need a cooperativ­e police discussion and a better community mic system. GA's need to be more accessible­... and so forth. Removing our camps lets the world seem "normal" for those craving some form of normal. It does not mean anything is normal however. The life of this movement is the continuati­on of protest... full on, non-violen­t protest and a discussion about the problems of keeping a camp safe for all and a ways to keep the agitators within the rules of non-violen­ce.

Anyway, this would hone the process, make us more prepared; it is a form of guerrilla protest. 

There is also that problem of holding on to the values that brought on the movement.  For a look at that I recommend the following link.

Controlling the Asshole Problem

Corporate Personhood

This morning I was going through the FaceBook feed and saw my Righty friend, Mike, had posted this video with the comment about not making this a Republican v. Democratic idea.  I almost fell out of my chair.  This argument is at the core of the 99%'s issue set.



The center of the argument is to stop money in the political system.  Public financing of elections is just one part of what we need.  There needs to be a part of the law that says there is a way to have a corporate execution for severe wrong doing.  Sell all the assets and take down the leaders of the company legally and cart them off to jail.

Too strong you say?  Think about it.  A corporation takes capital over a long period of time and builds itself creating income for the investors without concern for anyone.  It, the corporation, owes affinity for the investors but, for the most part only has allegiance to itself and its needs.  Some corporations have the idea held at the highest levels that it is above the law because it has specific needs... and nobody goes to jail.  It took me a long time to get this.  Operating ethically and legally a corporation can only go so far before those operating only in their own sociopathic interests take them over in our current system.  There have been lots of examples in the last ten or twenty years.  Enron comes to mind.

Oh, Herman...

 From Huffington Post

So, Herman Cain has some media trouble that he is trying to spin into an attack from... somewhere.  He tried to say it was Rick Perry's fault, then wondered aloud if perhaps it was Mitt Romney's camp that let the "cat out of the bag."  Eventually he settled on, "It must be the liberals, the progressives." 

What a hoot! 

Also along the way he first denied any and all forms of sexual harassment, then back peddled in several stages until he finally landed on the idea that this accusing person just had an axe to grind and it might be because he is a black man.  This guy told more lies along the way to this position and reversed himself several times.  Yawn.

All that has been a distraction form the real issues regard this buffoon.  After all for the liberals, the progressives, we welcome (Koch)Cain as a candidate!!  There isn't anyone who would be easier to defeat in a general election.  He is a pretty good and entertaining speaker but his political theories are so time worn and fallacious that there isn't any real debate to be had there.

His claim that he is/was a successful businessman is far more entertaining, actually.  Here's a little fact finding trove that got summed up by a commenter on an article in the Huffington Post:

"The Refudiator on HP

The Squirminat­or, Hermann Cain, criticizes the current economy and jobs results trying to draw attention for his "issue". Lets see how he did while managing God Fathers Pizza shall we?

Cain took over the fourth largest Pizza company in America with no debt and a great promising future and in nine years turned it into the eight largest pizza company in America, one with so much debt, it could not be sold.

911 stores before Cain, 530 stores after Cain.

Adjusting for inflation in 1985 to 1994, to compare it to the last year, 1995, that he was a full time CEO at Godfather’­­s, $325 million equals $448 million. Thus the drop was from $448 million (in 1995 dollars) to $265.5 million. This is a drop of about 41%. Adjusted for inflation, sales dropped by about 41% in the ten years that Herman Cain ran the company as CEO.

What a turn around.

So 999 means Nine years, Nine Fails, Nein Growth."

Now THAT is entertaining!!

Debt and Sense

We are not broke; we are broken.




There is no way that I can buy into the theory the Republicans are trying to fly these days.  Debt, debt, debt they cry but then are bankrupt in correcting the real problem.  Cuts with revenues will fix that.  We have seen that movie before multiple times in history.  Get over it.

Fix the political system by getting the money out of the process.  Public financing of the electoral process would help a lot.

Get control and re-regulate the banks.

Get control of the personhood of corporations.

That's the general direction we need to move toward.

Jobs Act... which one is real?

To date the republicans have offered no Jobs bill.  That's right, none.  What they have said is that we should rely on the old Reaganomics of Trickle Down economics to fix our recession woes.  To do this the suggestion is to cut taxes on the rich and have the middle class take the brunt of new taxes.  This is NOT a plan.  It is a tired and fallacious way to fix anything.  By having taken over the House of Representatives the R's have found a way to block any progress.  They are offering up a batch of crazies as potential Presidential candidates that are repeating the same line, the same old same old.  Make no mistake about it... these candidates are not serious about the problems of the country, they are liars, for the most part, repeating the non-plan of inaction.

Pick the Plan That Works.
   
Just listening to the buffoons drives me further and further left.  Just finding the middle any more is a difficult task given how far the right of right the Republicans have gone.  The substandard field of candidates is a symptom of a disingenuous party, willing to say almost anything, to get a cheer from the far, far, far right.  If any of the current batch of Representatives took the problem of  the economy seriously then one or two of them would be speaking up and offering a real counter plan to the American Jobs Act... but they are completely silent on this. 

From the Whitehouse.gov blog:

Protest Music

From the Arab Spring this artist came up with one of the first songs I have heard thus far:

JasonZ - Man On Fire

Written in honor of Mohammed Bouazizi, Man On Fire is intended to inspire everyone around the world who is trying create positive change because their government is corrupt and/or inept. 100% of the profits from this song will be spent to remove corporations ability to dictate the priorities of our government through "contributions".

It may not be completely applicable to OWS but it is interesting.

Keeping the Faith

 Courtesy: OSW & Politico

 
There is an underlying current in the news coverage of the Occupy Movement.  It has been about the, "What do these people want?" narrative.

It's not like the answer is complicated.  BUT, I have to say, it isn't a single issue so the media has this stupid, deer in the headlights, look.  They cannot handle a multifaceted answer to this core question.  Yeah, one sign says, "Get the Money Out (of the political process)," while another might say, "We are the 99%," or another saying, "Jail the Banksters."  That's doesn't translate to the easy message the 15 second nooz can handle.  There is a lot of thought being put into the messaging, make no mistake about just how screwed up the country is.  There are so many things wrong now that we have a broad set of issues to deal with.  As Randi Rhodes has pointed out for a long time, "The baby is crying... we have to do something," is what the politician knows is happening.  The nooz, at this point, is not so capable of generalizing and gets left behind.

Here we have the confluence of the issues and a common banner of the Occupiers.  This is not "Astro turf" but grass roots protesting on a grand scale.  Real revolution through peaceful means.

The vacuum of sucking the life out of the middle class has brought about the conditions of change.

More later.

Why Now?

You have to ask yourself at this point, why is the Occupy Movement happening now?  When you look at a number of factors in the current world situation you get the feeling that your particular situation is beyond your control.  When you pack rats closely together and shorten the distribution of food you get a very aggressive bunch of rats.  We are at a nexus of known wrongs to our planet, our economic well being and our moral standards.  This assault, for us in the U.S. started in earnest with Ronald Reagan but has been a Republican subtext, looking a long way back in history, to before the civil war.  At the time the same arguments were made by people not called Republicans but the ideas were from the same point of view.

Loosely speaking it would be the "stuck in the mud" party.  Recently I quit debating policy and politics with a group of conservative friends because you cannot really debate anything with the mentally ill.  If there are no agreed to facts to discuss then there is no real discussion.  It's as simple as that.  There is a tendency to ridicule rather than debate.  Getting to the lessons that history actually shows us is a useless exercise because you never get off the ground and get past the definitions of what, when and how things got the way they are now.  The following link puts a change of view in front of the writer and he begins to see things differently... that's where debate becomes possible:

The GD Hippies.

At a time when there are a lot of people looking for ways to live off the grid in homes of independent means through the use of solar panels, wells, local food production and so forth there is suddenly the connect-the-dots mentality that has awakened many to the need to overcome the banking system, the economy driven by fiat money controlled by a few banks (keeping the money supply defined and short of our needs) and paying the workers less and less.  It is the worker and the inventor who make wealth and value.  It is not the manager or "owner" of the plant who creates jobs.  AND, it is certainly not someone trading the stock of a company who creates anything.  Do not misunderstand me on this; the stock trader IS a necessary component of raising capital and moving the economy BUT that individual should not be paid disproportionately to the workers and inventors who create the opportunity.  Corporate ownership of the labors of the inventor is one of the places that we need a course correction on payment.  Innovation is worth a lot more to society than the manipulation of the capital to make it happen on a larger scale.  A legal system that wrests control away for the people actually making a product is a broken legal system, almost by definition.

Bush era broken policies.

More later.

Speaks for Itself

Unruly Does Not Mean Without Legal Basis

Having been pondering the state of things a lot lately there is a continuing disconnect between corporate media and the reality of the "boots on the ground".  A demonstration is a legal right that we all have.  When the Tea Party was "organized" they had media support because they were co-opted by the Koch brother type of money and the echo chamber from the Right.  It was a Right wing based movement that had no roots, or at least a very small set of roots capitalizing on the irritation of people against government.  I understand the irritation but, going back to Ronald Reagan, that has been the drum beat of the Right.  It has a basic misunderstanding of what and where government resides.  Government is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, making roads, educating our young and so forth... it is US.

The idea flows with a twist on what a "free" market looks like.  The Right's current echo/voice says that a free market is supposed to be a completely unregulated marketplace.  This is the market of the sociopath.  Having a market without rules is to have the "right" to steal as much as to have a "right" to make a profit.  That last was a line I heard as a sound bite from a media representative of Bank of America.  That translates (for the Right) as they have a guaranty of profit regardless of how they treat people.  That definition is wrong from the get-go.  That definition is to ignore what makes a business grow.  It is how the Right now defines the marketplace however.  Regulations (rules) to any game are meant to make a fair, balanced playing field for all the players.  That was the genesis of the rules put in place during the last depression (1930's).  It worked until Ronald Reagan started to dismantle the rules.  That shift takes away the rights and protections 99% of us had to keep the predators off our backs.

In the current environment we need to continue to regulate, MORE THAN EVER.  We need to call the predators out and start to prosecute them for stealing the assets of the country... it was the large corporations that stole from us, not the government.  Many of those corporations have been convicted of past FELONIES but, unlike people, continue to do business without penalty.  The money behind the deregulation we have seen has built to the point that mirrors what America looked like in a similarly deregulated environment of the 1920's.  It was after the prior crash that rules were put in place that protected us for almost 50 years.

One of the symptomatic changes that was hustled through about ten years ago was the insertion in the bankruptcy codes that a person's home was no longer protected.  In other words, your home was now eligible to be taken away from you.  Previously it was protected as an asset from the banks... witness what happened after the banks were further deregulated to create not just sub-prime mortgages but sell those debts in bulk as derivatives... massive displacement of former homeowners who were forced by the collapse that caused to declare bankruptcy.

More to follow.

New Dictionary

 Having gotten caught up in a few discussions where I end up wondering how such vitriolic nonsense got sooo off track.  Well, it turns out that I was hitting all the buttons of the Righty re-definitions of the language!!  Now there is help:

Republicans often have a different way of "discussing" their views.

Thanks to friend Linde I have had a chance to see the rest of the buttons for the next "discussion"!!  It's really fun to watch the veins pop out as I hit every one of their talking points (they often want to define what we can and cannot talk about) with fact filled Lefty talk!!

A favorite re-definition example:

 Ronald Reagan: A fictional character based loosely on President Ronald Reagan.

An Explanation that is WORTH Watching

If we don't get it there are those who do... I would hire this guy in a heartbeat if I still had a place at the table!

Joining the March

Yesterday we (Sandy & I) joined in a march in support of the Occupy Movement.  While we have a couple friends who argue that they cannot possibly BE 99%ers they are by definition in that category because they do not have $250,000 per year plus incomes.  Well, who knows, maybe they do but have been loitering with the rest of us for the last few years.

Anyway, we joined in a march across the I-5 bridge from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, Washington.  It was all very civil and fairly well organized for such rabble as ourselves!  The two most favored chants for the day were:

"Banks got bailed out, We got sold out"

"We ARE the 99%"

There was Union support for the march and the plumbers and longshoremen showed up.  There were Postal Workers carrying support signs for the OWS movement as well as H.R. 1351 to save the postal system.  We did indeed march across the bridge and regathered at Ester Short Park in downtown Vancouver for a brief session of speechifying.

As we crossed the bridge many drivers and passenger from cars in the traffic (the vast majority, in fact) honked or waved support for us.  There were a few folks "flipping" us the universal sign of disrespect (I counted 4) but we smiled extra for them and waved respectfully back.  The number of trucks giving us a boost from their air horns was a very fine thing as well.

We had a good day of showing support in a very excellent way and a chance to meet a few people along the way.

Oh, and there was a lone Republican in the crowd trying to cause a problem but we all gave him the freedom to do what he wanted to.

We No Longer Remember Fascism

I read this as part of a comment on the Republican debate, especially the Herman Cain comments blaming the unemployed for their plight.  Blaming the victims has been standard fare lately.


14 characteri­­­­­­stics of f*s­cism:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalis­­­­­­m

2. Disdain for the Recognitio­­­­­­n of Human Rights

3. Identifica­­­­­­tion of Enemies/Sc­­­­­­apego­a­t­s as a Unifying Cause

4. Supremacy of the Military

5. Rampant Sexism

6. Controlled Mass Media

7. Obsession with National Security

8. Religion and Government are Intertwine­­­­­­d

9. Corporate Power is Protected

10. Labor Power is Suppressed

11. Disdain for Intellectu­­­­­­als and the Arts

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

14. Fraudulent Elections, Voter Suppression, Political Redistrict­­ing

When I have seen or heard Limbaugh, Beck and other Righties blather on about the Occupy Wall Street movement they hit all of these buttons.  Am I tired of this?  Uh, yes, I am tired to the point of cranking up all of my old political activism.

When I have seen or heard Limbaugh, Beck or other Righties blathering on about the Occupy movement they hit all of the above buttons.  It used to be that you could have a decent discussion with the "other side" and it would remain fairly civil.  Now the above list IS the PLATFORM of the Republican party... it is now impossible to have a discussion because they can never agree with a basis for discussion.

Free enterprise is not the same as unstructured markets.  Without regulations (rules) the market will go out of its way to show as much greed as it can.  That is human nature and why greed has always been seen as a sin.

Get control of Congress:

Salary of retired US Presidents ………….$450,000 FOR LIFE
Salary of House/Senate members ……….$174,000 FOR LIFE
Salary of Speaker of the House …………..$223,500 FOR LIFE
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders …..$193,400 FOR LIFE

 

The Regressive Right

From the linked story below:

Robert Reich: The Rise of the Regressive Right

"Listen carefully to today's Republican right and you hear the same Social Darwinism Americans were fed more than a century ago to justify the brazen inequality of the Gilded Age: Survival of the fittest."

The reawakening of progressive thought is a powerful thing.  I get vitriolic blow back from a Righty friend that is not to be believed.  She exclaims that we do not have leadership from our President (she will scream loudly that he is not HER president).  At the same time she says that the Republican candidates (pick any of them) are more "Presidential" than President Obama.  At first this ticked me off but now I see it with new eyes.  Frankly, if the next election goes as I think it will she will suffer the rest of a mental break down that started in 2010 when her party took over the House of Representatives.

There is no doubt that the country is energized.  There is no doubt that the tipping point has been the "do nothing" congress to crank up the People to political action.  We will see the nonviolent fight of the Occupy Movement keeping us all engaged over the next twelve months even if they need to retract for the worst of the winter.  Lulling the Tea Party into a momentary sleep might be a good idea, in fact.  The agenda is so broad, so powerful, that keeping it in front of our collective mind will be difficult.  There are things like the Wisconsin recall of their Governor in January/February that will help keep the movement alive but it may take a fresh ramp up in Spring and Summer of 2012.  The national party conventions will also help. 


"Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Roberts (and, all too often, Kennedy) claim they're conservative jurists. But they're judicial activists bent on overturning 75 years of jurisprudence by resurrecting states' rights, treating the 2nd Amendment as if America still relied on local militias, narrowing the Commerce Clause, and calling money speech and corporations people."

In the background the stakes are very high.  We need to take action against the running of the Supreme Court by the activists trying to drag us back to the middle ages.  To elect a Righty to the Presidency is more dangerous to us all than I can express.

Now We See Fear

Having now watched several more of the arrests and threats of arrest as people attempt to close their accounts at a variety of Big Banks I can see what the fear is.  This is very, very clear now.  A run on the banks would be a major problem.  The banks are not able to handle that much cash out flow and still serve their daily transactions.  It has the horrific possibility of closing our banking system down.  More than any other single idea this one gets a lot of attention.

Afraid of shutting the banks down is the same as shutting the country down.  The odd equalizer in this is that the largest companies would be MORE affected than the smallest among us!!  If they cannot make the normal transactions due in a day there will be a bank holiday declared in a heartbeat!!  We haven't seen one of those in a long, long time.  It was the 1930's when this last happened and it took years to dig out from the occurrence. 

BoA Needs a Makeover!!

Rolling Stone article that gets very close to saying it exactly.

But it's a useful anger...

The Tea Party's Origins Could have Been the Occupy Movement 

This linked article says a lot about what happened to the Tea Party and why it didn't work out so well.  The idea here is that the Occupy Movement needs to stay "leaderless" for awhile longer.

Back in the Clinton Presidency I started doubting the Republican party's sincerity on most issues.  At the time I still identified with the R's - even called myself one - since I was and still am much of the time, a fiscal conservative.  The problem for me actually started longer ago but came to the front about 14 or 15 years ago.  The social issues that edged into the party's agenda kept me from a full embrace, thank goodness for that!

I can't agree with the anti-abortion issue, which is really more accurately portrayed as a woman's right's issue.  It is about decisions that are not political at all.  It's about who gets to put their nose in that particular tent.  There are NO politicians that have a deserved place at that table.  The Gay rights issue is yet another place where politicians have no place at the table.  They don't understand it as an issue and just put forth hate and stupidity.  Environmentally the R's have shown a deft ability to be anti-environment but publicize their position as if they are the only supports.  This one really irks me.  This one is very, very unfriendly to all of us.

I can't agree with the Trickle Down theory that has caused so much of a problem.  In fact, it is so discredited as an economic theory that Economist are actively trying to shout down the right wingers more and more.  The politicians are not economists and only vaguely have ANY understanding about how the system works or what is GOOD for the economy.  They do have a place at this table but have abused the privilege.  We allow them to dictate monetary policy through all the wrong things.  We are captured by the Fed as well and this capture works against the working class but strongly benefits the top 1% of earners.  Another place where I cannot gain agreement with the current version of Republicans is to start wars for some imagined infraction, that is, things like WMD's and THEN say that we will have the war paid for by the oil of the "offending" country.  Let's see, our soldiers die for someone Else's profiteering.  Oh, and while doing anything they try to Privatize every aspect of what government should and has traditionally done for us (at much greater cost and profits for the few).  Not to mention the stupidity of ignoring or trying to reverse the movement toward Medicare for all (Single Payer Health Care).

Okay, enough rant for now... as a recovering Republican who has gone way to the left and is really, really pissed off about the money in politics and the need to reform the Supreme Court and several of the BAD decisions that have been made in the last few years I have to say that the present day atmosphere of the Occupy Movement is healthy and that the continued attempt to corrupt and co-opt the movement by the Righties is not, not, not going to work this time.  The voters who are the 99% will come crashing through all the obstacles the R's have been trying to put in place and chase the culprits out of office.  This coming election of 2012 will be huge.  It will likely be the best, largest outcry that has happened in a very long time.

A parting shot as well:

The cost of tax cuts... per hour.

9 - 9 - 9 >> 6 - 6 - 6

When I first heard Herman (Koch)Cain say that he has a great new tax scheme I leaned forward and listened carefully.  Out came the 9 - 9 - 9 plan and I fell over from the laughter.  The man is insane if he thinks that is a plan.  His, "I don't have the facts," defense of his plan is about right.  He said he had the plan scored independently and that turned out to be a fairy tale with assumptions a 6 six year old would see through.

A few words about 999... 

This is sooo crazy that if the Republicans buy into it they will implode long before the next election.  From my point of view that's not a horrible thing but I worry that they have gotten so insane that they don't realize how destructive this sort of policy would be.  The poor would be hardest hit and the working class would be buried in a mountain of taxes.  How in the world did we get to this incredible (non-credible) idea and have ANYBODY applaud?  This guy is snorting a drug to be this crazy. Bachmann had it about right, "The devils' in the details."

Wall Street

Until the accountability is there we cannot be satisfied with the status quo. And what's with arresting those exercising their First Amendment Rights?  When we treat corporations the same as any criminal when they do wrong then corporation can have person-hood.

The Seven Lies of the GOP

 From Raw Story came the story By Robert Reich (economist) about the LIES we do not have to swallow:

"1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else.
Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and has dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.

 2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth.
False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they’ve been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don’t believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)

3. Shrinking government generates more jobs.
Wrong again. It means fewer government workers – everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody’s economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.

 4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy.
Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They’ll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.

 5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits.
Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that’s because the nation’s health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid’s bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.

 6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.
Don’t believe it. Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.

7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax.
Wrong. There’s nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.

Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough,  start being believed — unless they’re rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth – and spread it on."

I read recently a market analysis that blatantly put forward many of these lies.  I was surprised at the candid assessment that posited the theory that Social Security could be "fixed" by putting means testing in place before you could receive the "entitlement" you paid for.  First, it's not an entitlement it is a contract you have with the government, its a benefit like you would receive from any insurance contract.  Second, what drives current deficits is not the social systems we have put in place... it is excessive spending on the military and the like.

Full story here.

Obamacare / Single Payer Heath Care

While I have been advocating for Single Payer Health Care for some time there was this bit of concern that I heard about how to keep the politics out of the system.  Since the idea of Single Payer is about a payment system not a health decision system I had not really put the emphasis on this particular question.  Well, there IS a response to this “problem” as framed by the person asking the question.

To make the system not a part of politics, repeal the separate system in place for Congress for THEIR health care.  When you look at what has been voted into place for our Representatives and Senators it looks like (if it quacks like a duck…) Single Payer Obamacare!!  Really!  Look closely and you will find that their retirement system looks a lot like Uncapped Social Security as well!!  If you take those perquisites away from them and put them into the SAME system that the rest of us have you will see the system suddenly work.  We did not vote these special treats into place… that is, “We, the People” had no say in putting this stuff in place. 

When the politicians are part of the same system then they will be consistently with us in solving any of the problems.

One of the idiotic things I had (may still have) to overcome is the misdirection from the Righties that Single Payer is about putting the government in CHARGE of your health care issues.  While it is nonsense on the surface of it to say that this is the way it works, it is hard to get past the layer of anti-SP that has been put out there.  If no one listens it is hard to have a discussion.  Currently the private health care companies (insurance companies) have a 35% expense ratio while Single Payer has been shown to have a 3% expense ratio.  The job within the private carrier that is the purse strings of the company is the functionary (a bureaucrat) who denies coverage for procedures that doctors’ show is necessary for the patient.  Additionally, the doctors’ practices pay additional people in their offices to “code” the procedures so that the insurance companies will pay for what needs to be done.  So, the wrong heads out there will fight against a bureaucrat in government helping to handle paying but ignore that profit is the incentive of the current system.  Hmmm, I wonder who would make the better decision?  In any case, in the Single Payer system it is not a “save money by denying coverage” system, it is a straightforward payment plan.

Putting the decision process back in the hands of the doctor and the patient has apparently gotten the Right up in arms against their own best interest.  The dialog of the Right is again in the echo chamber of repeating the lies about what the system would look like (how it would work) and it is difficult to get the attention of the low information voter.

The long and short of it is that putting Congress on our system would force them to create a fair system for all of us. 

Media Absense

 From Occupy Spokane

The regular media has been somewhat absent from reporting on the Occupy movement.  The internet has Occupy sites all over the place if you look but the number of sites is hard to get all the news about the movement at once.  Last night there was alive feed from a park in Boston as the police arrested and moved the group out of the park.  There was a feed from the police frequencies through an on-line scanner that kept you up with the police tactical situation.  Here in Portland, in part because the movement IS large, the main stations are reporting on some of the movement and have moved past the ridicule stage.

Why is Greed Good, Again??

First a bit of a history lesson: 

Taxes and the Creation of Greed

Hopefully you had time to take the side trip into the story about The Tea Party Gets It Wrong embedded in the above link as well.

So, here we are a few decades down the road, having had our system corrupted, I mean seriously corrupted, by the deadly sin becoming a "good" thing.  It's hard to comprehend how that happened, really it is.  Here we have a good nation of mostly concerned citizenry being controlled by a Sociopathic group who seemingly have no good direction we can now go.  There is no longer concern for those of us who can no longer keep up.  There is no room for the diversity that immigrants bring us.  There is no tolerance for women controlling their bodies.  There is only the violence that Colonialism breeds (we want your oil, we will take your oil).  

That a Sin is now a Good thing and that the message is part of the Echo Chamber from the right winged demons spewed endlessly at us has beaten many into submission.  Or, so they thought.  Reality check: the right is now fearful that freedom will break out and that the Occupy agenda will actually take hold.  Gosh, golly, geewillikers.  This coming year will be very, very difficult for all of us.  

The Republicans are not likely to stop being the door stop in Congress.

The country needs to have a jobs bill passed.  The Republicans say, "No."  The country needs single payer health care.  The Republicans say, "No."  The country needs, requires, a working political system.  The Republicans say, "No."  We need to get money out of the political system.  The Republicans say, "We want the money."  The way to change all this, given the corporate control of the system, is to demonstrate and push back hard and long.  That this will have to happen all this winter and likely explode this coming spring says that it will be a very large task this coming year. The Republicans have BECOME the John Birch Society... it happened slowly but it needs to be undone soon.

The Right Will Never Get It

The Right does not Get It... no surprise there.  If they are afraid of the 'growing mob," that is because they know they have been caught with their collective hands in the cookie jar.  Here is the simplest way to SEE what is going on:



Having said that, I am certain that they still won't Get It.

The Banksters reach into Your Pocket

 From NPR Cartoon site

11 Facts About Banks

Starting with the above link this is part of the picture of what the Occupy folks are looking at.  That your pocket has been methodically raided for the last 15 plus years and that we no longer have the regulations we need to protect ourselves is directly due to the Republican agenda.  Since Ronald Reagan, the dismantling of necessary regulation has taken our rights and protections from us.  Any and every time we relent and allow these thugs into our law making process they unvail yet another assault.

The discussion has been skewed considerably too.  A recent exchange I had with a Righty said that she was for the free market.  Well, so am I but that does not mean a free and uninterrupted assault without regulation.  If we are a country of laws, as I have often heard said, then we are a land of regulations.  That is, every aspect of our lives has some juxtaposition to the laws of the land.  Saying that you are for a free market has become code for, "I don't want to be subject to any laws."  This is just wrong headed.  As a nation of laws we need police powers to hold in check the forces of evil... the banks in an increasingly unregulated environment have become that evil.  There is no mistaking the extent of this fact.  Look at what they have done.  Crashing the economy has worked to their benefit.

We live in, or want to live in, a free society.  Do we not need laws to protect us from murders and criminals in general?  I mean, if we have laws are we free?  Of course we are.  Regulations for industry are the laws that likewise protect us from polluters, or corporate greed or any number of problems business can generate if left to its own devices.  It is just a little over the line to say that we need a country of fewer regulations; to the contrary, we need to reinstate many of the regulations that we have killed off during the last several years.  A government without regulations is not a government at all.  Consider this, the Constitution is a set of laws and we do not want to live in a place without this minimum level of protection.

In the end, laws are protections that WE have put in place for our benefit.  The Right has become the John Birch Society of 50 years ago... they wanted no laws.  This is just code for, "We want to be unfettered in our quest to fleece the public," because it is the corporate Right that is promoting this idea not WE the people.  

What, Me Organized?

One of the greatest things about the Occupy Wall Street and spin off movements is that it is constantly being called unorganized.  During the Occupy Portland rally I went to I saw clearly that it is very, very organized.  In so many ways, from the second I got within 100 feet of the group assembling I noticed instruction on a variety of fronts all over the event.  The "Mic Check" scheme made it clear that this is a very democratic way of getting all the feedback needed to get the participants to participate!!

Here is a feed from the Huffington Post that says a lot about how this works:

"Last night, I was part of a nearly 3hr meeting that involved coordination of direct action trainings, legal strategy education, political education, historical education, support strategies for teachers of color in NYC, skillshares & theater to combat patriarchal behavior in organizing, support for indigenous remembrance in opposition to Columbus Day, and means of putting the struggles of marginalized communities in NYC at the center of it all. This involved management of TWO google groups, multiple schedule tracks of classes, 3-4 web calendars integrated into one web platform, and fuck knows how many twitter feeds. It also involved liaising, federation, and mutual support between no fewer than five thematic working groups and adherence to principles laid out by a directly-democratic general assembly.The next time you hear someone say Occupy Wall Street is disorganized, please slap them." - Jason Cherkis

This is probably confusing to the media because they don't "Get" the structure.  They want a single individual to interview.  The media doesn't Get democracy and transparency.  Too, too funny really.

The Clueless Chime In

So, it was Eric Cantor, a (truly clueless) Representative from Virginia said, back in the days of the Tea Party organizing demonstrations, ”… fighting on the fighting lines of what we know is a battle for our democracy.”

Now Cantor is concerned that the “growing mobs” are a danger to democracy.  Can you believe how thoroughly scripted his mindset is?  How clueless?  He goes along with the right wing organized collection of people (who were NEVER shown the amount of support the Occupy Wall Street movement has now) who became the Tea Party but now is “concerned” (maybe read as terrified) over an independent movement.  Yes, he is very much the epitome poster boy for idiot.

One commenter on the story of Cantor’s whining in rawstory.com said:

“When the teabaggers, armed to the teeth are in the streets, the Rethugs not only praise them as "patriotic Americans exercising their 'freedom of speech/assembly", but actively encourage them.

BUT, when the shoe is on the other foot, those unarmed, nonviolent 99%ers are in the streets, they are denounced as "Un American mobs'.

Hypocrisy much scumbag Cantor?“  - FcukTheArmy

This is a reflective statement of the feeling of the country at large toward the clueless, whinny 1%ers.  During my time at Occupy Portland it was clear that the narrative has been taken away from the Right and given over to a less organized group whose strength is in that “leaderless” approach to civil disobedience.

The story started here...