An Exchange

...from Debt Ceiling Deal Reached To Avert Default (LATEST UPDATES)...

Moi: “"The mastery of the political right over the past thirty years has been primarily to better understand the irrational factors in politics. Conservati­ves have always understood that when it comes to politics, people rarely act in their rational self-inter­est but instead on emotion, fears and the perception of their interests.­” ~Joe Bageant http://www­.joebagean­t.com/joe/­2008/10/no­t-new-idea­s-b.html ”

demwits: [that's really their handle] “So explain why the vote for Obama stash, or he will pay my mortgage vote, keep my cheese coming vote, "free" to me, via big govi' liberal programs vote ect?? I think that the word conservati­ve should say liberal, what does the dictonary say? think about it.”

Moi: “Early today a friend wailed "our once charismati­c leader has been replaced by some pod person dopplegang­er sopping milquetoas­t"

I replied, "No, he never existed in the first place. Even a casual examinatio­n of 'Senator' Obama's record will show that he was always a Center/Rig­ht Corporatis­t. His presidenti­al campaign was a 'political act' from start to finish."

And it is that presidenti­al campaign that many Right Wingers believe too. But we were all lied to. Me, I never Believed In Hope because I do my homework. I boycotted the whole damn '08 election.

Taking care of the poor and unemployed and the sick, elderly and disabled is more than merely 'morally correct' [which Christ taught us to do btw], it is also good economics. Those groups tend to spend every penny of their benefits.

Here in California­, SSI has been cut from $907 per month in Jan '09 to $830 now. [you try to live on that amount] That's roughly a $1000 annual cut, which means that tens of thousands now spend that much less, which means that much is now taken out of the economy.

You'll say "Well, it goes back to the taxpayers"­. Yes, some does. And much of that will then go to paying off their endless debt aka it goes to Wall Street, not to Main Street.

Our economy is not only stagnant, it is contractin­g. Taking all of this money out the economy is only going to make that worse. Conservati­ve 'free market' economics have dominated since Reagan's first term. So why then are we in the deepest hole since the Great Depression­? Every Conservati­ve answer I ever get to that question has been a false Corporatis­t Talking Point, though most who reply believe them.

Like I said above, we've all been lied to....

Here, this is Specific and Practical, though of course politicall­y futile as it runs counter to the interests of The Corporate State:

Simple Solutions To The Budget Crisis:
End two wars of occupation­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­. Leave the Middle East and Central Asia.
Stop fighting the Cold War. Leave Europe.
Start closing down America's world wide 'empire of bases'.
Stop funding the military power of other nations.
End all military contracts, and return all of those duties to the military itself.
Close Guantanamo and return Cuba's sovereign territory.
Abrogate NAFTA completely­.
[I'd also say withdraw from the IMF and WTO, but we own the damned things!]
Stop subsidizin­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­g the already highly profitable oil industry.
Stop subsidizin­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­g the highly unprofitab­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­l­e corn industry.
Nationaliz­e the private prison industry.
Release all minor, non-violen­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­t drug offenders and stop paying a fortune to incarcerat­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­e them.
End the War on Drugs, dismantle the DEA, legalize all drugs, then regulate and tax them.
Establish a State Bank for each of the fifty states and have each state treasury deposit ALL state revenues, pension funds, etc 'exclusive­ly' in their own State Bank.
Establish a national Single Payer 'buy in' program for Medicare with no age restrictio­ns.
Extend a fully funded Medicaid to everyone below the poverty line.
Rebuild all of America's infrastruc­­­­ture from the ground up.
Rebuild American industry here in America itself, by government fiat if necessary.
...and the biggest one, return to the sensible Eisenhower era taxation rate."

Random

~I've been emotionally all over the place. [“So what else is new?” we all say together] Of course all the grotesque political theater around the Debt Ceiling Debate has had me bouncing between Rage and Despair and back again. But there are other issues, as well.

I'm worried about an old friend who I cannot help. [private matter/no details]

I'm watching Jasper, the last of The Three Old Men, slowly fade away. He's fifteen and a half, so such is to be expected. He's not 'sick', just Old. He eats and poops and sleeps on top of Le-Le like he always has. But he's slowed down a lot, doesn't run in the nightly Cat Races anymore. We feed him top of the line canned food, put senior vitamins in it, etc. And he's Old. He could putter along for another year or so. But it's clear he's fading. [I don't do well with this *cries*]

And all this has me stuck again vis-a-vis The Explanation, which is always frustrating. That is really the only thing that gets me out of bed in the whenever.

Oh, yeah; I almost forgot. My birthday is at the end of this month. It's been hardwired into me as a Day of Failure and in some years, Trauma. Those days have passed, thank Goddess, but they lasted for fucking decades and are hard to shake. Not sure if I ever will. It's like a low grade fever that starts in late June. Blah...

Ransom Paid

http://robertreich.org/post/8331408301

Monday, August 1, 2011

Anyone who characterizes the deal between the President, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics.

The deal does not raise taxes on America’s wealthy and most fortunate — who are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and whose tax rates are already lower than they have been, in eighty years. Yet it puts the nation’s most important safety nets and public investments on the chopping block.

It also hobbles the capacity of the government to respond to the jobs and growth crisis. Added to the cuts already underway by state and local governments, the deal’s spending cuts increase the odds of a double-dip recession. And the deal strengthens the political hand of the radical right.

Yes, the deal is preferable to the unfolding economic catastrophe of a default on the debt of the U.S. government. The outrage and the shame is it has come to this choice.

More than a year ago, the President could have conditioned his agreement to extend the Bush tax cuts beyond 2010 on Republicans’ agreement not to link a vote on the debt ceiling to the budget deficit. But he did not.

Many months ago, when Republicans first demanded spending cuts and no tax increases as a condition for raising the debt ceiling, the President could have blown their cover. He could have shown the American people why this demand had nothing to do with deficit reduction but everything to do with the GOP’s ideological fixation on shrinking the size of the government — thereby imperiling Medicare, Social Security, education, infrastructure, and everything else Americans depend on. But he did not.

And through it all the President could have explained to Americans that the biggest economic challenge we face is restoring jobs and wages and economic growth, that spending cuts in the next few years will slow the economy even further, and therefore that the Republicans’ demands threaten us all. Again, he did not.

The radical right has now won a huge tactical and strategic victory. Democrats and the White House have proven they have little by way of tactics or strategy.

By putting Medicare and Social Security on the block, they have made it more difficult for Democrats in the upcoming 2012 election cycle to blame Republicans for doing so.

By embracing deficit reduction as their apparent goal – claiming only that they’d seek to do it differently than the GOP – Democrats and the White House now seemingly agree with the GOP that the budget deficit is the biggest obstacle to the nation’s future prosperity.

The budget deficit is not the biggest obstacle to our prosperity. Lack of jobs and growth is. And the largest threat to our democracy is the emergence of a radical right capable of getting most of the ransom it demands.

Nebs Nullification

~Wherein the grotesque over-usage of Godwin's Law has become pernicious to the point of being repressive, a counter-meme has become essential.

To wit, it is contended that the German National Socialist movement, aka Nazism, had an impact upon the 20th Century – politically, psycho-culturally, philosophically, economically, technologically, theologically - of such depth and profundity that it far outweighs the impact of all the other movements of that century, one which irrevocably changed the not only the course of human history, but even the ways in which we perceive ourselves as human.

Therefore, it is stated that said over usage of Godwin's Law is to be considered an Epistemological Crime of the First Order and those who commit it are to be branded Enemies of Knowledge.

Commentary: [Aug 1st, 2011] I have been cogitating upon this for a while. What finally brought it to a head was the Tea Party's actions regarding The Debt Ceiling contrasted with the US Chamber of Commerce’s quiet, but desperate attempts to head them off.

The CoC had funded a fair number of Tea Partyeirs and helped them to take The House. Yet here they were trying to stop them from wrecking the US economy, something inimical to their interests. I referred to that as The Hitler Mistake, the false belief by Capitalist Interests that they can control Political Radicals via the application of money.

Of course, such a statement, though clearly valid, would automatically draw a Godwin's citation and derail the entire conversation. Hence the above, which I shall now immediately cite in return, as may anyone else.

Note however that hyperbolic statements such as “Obama is like Hitler” or “Glenn Beck is a Nazi” are still covered by Godwin's Law. Obama is a thoroughly owned Center/Right Corporatist sycophant and Glenn Beck is mere another in a long line of American Nativist demagogues with Fascistic tendencies.

Outside of fiction and nightmares, Hitler and the real Nazis are dead and gone. But their lessons seem largely still unlearned or forgotten. It is past time that we begin to remember and truly learn them once again.

Okay, THIS one does call for a Godwin's citation. lol

Kim Simac, Tea Party Candidate For Jim Holperin Recall, Compares Public Schools To Nazi Regime
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/kim-simac-tea-party-candi_n_914897.html

Wisconsin tea party organizer and children's book author Kim Simac has admitted to comparing American public schools to the Nazi regime...yadda yadda yadda

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