Screed of the Day

Just read this. It is Scott Creighton's latest anti-bankster/gov't collusionist screed over at American Everyman, and it's a winner.

Excerpt:

This was, and is, a crime against humanity and none of this would have been possible if government was not working in direct opposition to the best interest of the people of this country. None of it. And both parties are culpable.

Without the destruction of the protections of the Glass-Steagall Act, or the Banking Act of 1933 none of this would have happened. Part of the Roosevelt’s New Deal program, this Glass-Steagall separated commercial and investment banking institutions. This kept Wall Street firms from becoming “Too Big Too Fail” and from betting on the demise of the liar loans they created. Glass-Steagall was destroyed by the previous administration, the Clinton administration, just prior to their leaving office, setting up what would come later under Bush. They also made it illegal to regulate the very derivatives that would end up fueling this latest great depression. When one looks at it clearly one can see that both parties, working in near perfect synchronicity, conspired with the banks to defraud the people of this country and to cripple the economy in such a way that now they are able to pass certain reforms which would have been unthinkable in 1999.

They (the banks and financial institutions) made money on this plot of theirs in every conceivable way and they continue to this day to profit immensely from their scheme.

Not only did they profit from the government programs designed to help unqualified buyers with their down payments, but the profited from the payments made, from the bundling of the loans, from betting against the loans when they were doomed to fail, from the eventual foreclosures and resale of the property, and then from the bailouts and backdoor bailouts as well.

I'll say. Paine ain't go nothin' on Creighton.

Well...

It isn't over till it's over, but clearly the Fat Lady is tuning up.

The Debt Limit/Deficit issue is near some kind of Grand Bargain resolution, no matter the posturing of the players to suggest otherwise.

And the Simpson-Bowles report will be the framework for the resolution.

A New Commission will be formed to detail the alterations to the Entitlements that Simpson-Bowles left to be filled in later, but we can be sure that most of the rest of their report will be adopted pretty much as is.

This will mean, for example, that the tax base will be "broadened," by limiting deductions and tax "expenditures" (can anybody say "EITC?") and making "everyone" eligible to pay income taxes instead of just the 47% who do so now. Simultaneously, tax rates on the rich will go down, significantly. The poor, who never had to pay income taxes -- and were never meant to -- will now be "eligible" to put their skin in the game, lucky duckies, so as to make up for the tax losses at the top. Genius.

Entitlements (odd that that word has come to have a pejorative connotation among so many these days; it was never a curse word before) will be "adjusted" so as to reflect the "New Normal Times" we're living in. Back when the Soviet Union collapsed, pensioners took it in the shorts, and many of the survivors are still in dire straits. What we're being prepared for here doesn't look like it will be quite that bad, but it won't be good.

Social Security increases will be slowed, and the retirement age will be raised, but probably not substantially or quickly. It took thirty years to get it from 65 to 67, and it quite possibly will take 30 years to get it up to 70. Semi-Privatizing the program for younger workers is still a possibility, but probably not as much of one as was once the case; the Government needs SS funds for current operations, wars, and benefits for the rich, and at this point, it is hard to see a way for the Government to sacrifice any revenue source, but you never know.

It will become more and more difficult for oldsters to get by on their meager pensions, though. This will cause some distress -- but not nearly enough to do anything about it.

Medicare/Medicaid is going to be where the really nasty entitlement cuts are made, we can be almost certain of it.

Of course Medicaid has already been cut to the bone in state after bankrupt state. From a recipient's point of view, further cuts are almost inconceivable. But they're coming just the same. If you think Granny is being warehoused now, you ain't seen nothing yet. As for access to health care for the poor: Ha. In your dreams.

What will be happening with Medicaid recipients will be a preview of what is going to happen with just about everyone under the ACA, including Medicare recipients.

The signs are that the Ryan Plan will -- with some adjustments -- be implemented for seniors. It will be essentially the same as the ACA for everyone else. Apart from the confusion of the transition, there won't necessarily be any startling changes immediately, but ultimately, it will mean that everyone is paying more for less and less access to health care. That's the key to saving money in Medicaid -- make it difficult or impossible to access the health care system -- and that's what's going to happen with the rest of the health care industry. It will still be there; it may not necessarily even cost you any more than you already pay. You just won't have such "easy" access to care. Genius!

All this and much more is part of the neo-liberal Grand Bargain Obama is intent on. Whether or not he has a second term in the White House could not matter less to him, so all the fancy threats never to vote for him -- or any Democrat -- again!!!!® are pretty meaningless. So? Something about nose and spite comes to mind.

This is what it looks like from here.

Still developing, of course.

And from a political -- not a policy -- standpoint, Obama has played it masterfully.

Prole Crushing -- or: What's Wrong With Corporate Rule, Anyway?

The recent Palace spats over raising the Debt Limit have dramatized for all to see just how powerful the Corporate Interests are in DC, and how little power The People have in the face of the Onslaught of the Titans.

According to the polls, The People do not want the Debt Limit raised (and in this, Public Opinion may be well ahead of the "Opinion Leaders"), but of course Our Rulers, particularly Wall Street and its dependencies insist the DL MUST BE RAISED forthwith or they'll Blow Up the Economy. This is the actual bloodcurdling threat being issued by the Financial High and the Mighty to the Governmental High and the Mighty if they continue to fuck around like they've been doing for political advantage.

The whole thing goes in the crapper if they don't do what they are told. (Not that this hasn't already happened for millions upon millions of Americans, more every year; the current threats are being issued from one faction of the Ruling Class to another. We, the Proles, factor not at all in the rumblings except as pawns.)

This has the salutary effect of focusing the minds of the Powerful, one would suppose, but it also exposes what's really going on: "Prole Crushing" (h/t David Sirota) in a word.

(One is somehow reminded of the Firesign Theatre -- Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, yes?)

And that's what's wrong with corporate rule.

What is really startling about what has been going on -- for years now -- is just how mean and mean spirited The Powers That Be are in pursuit of their predatory and vicious goals. There is no "Nice" about it; it's cruelty all the way, from every side of Power.

They revel in their power to inflict "pain" on others. It has become a hallmark, almost a reason for being among the High and the Mighty and their media courtiers. The media in fact is, if anything, much worse than their sponsors in loving the sight and the thought of Other People Suffering.

This is what Corporate Rule means on the everyday level: plunder and pain and suffering for the Masses, further accumulation of wealth and power by the Overlords.

There is no mercy, there is no recognition of the human wreckage left in the wake of the predatory Ruling Class, any more than predators in nature "recognize" the wreckage they leave behind, nor even that their prey is capable of sensing what is going on.

It reminds me of the incredible and mindless cruelty of plunging live lobsters into boiling water. As if there were no other way. And as if lobsters could not be sensible to any pain or suffering -- because they are lobsters, meant for the cooking pot.

It's just the same with the Corporate Ruling Class and their minions vis a vis the masses. We are nothing to them, not even capable of "feeling" or even sensing what is being done to us for the profit and pleasure of the Overlords.

Neither mercy nor forbearance enters the picture.

Much the same was typical of the heyday of Empire and its resurgence today masquerading as the Global War on Terror. The Natives had no human qualities their Conquerors were bound to recognize or accept; their suffering and their slaughter was pre-ordained on high. Wiping them from the face of the Earth, enslaving remnant survivors was God's Work. Civilization!

It was even worse during the initial phase of Western Empire building when entire continents were essentially de-populated in the race for riches and the exploitation of regions. The corpses of the exterminated Natives meant as little to those who were killing them as the piles of buffalo bones meant to the herd exterminators of the 19th Century.



And note, the victims are always to blame.

This is the world we have entered; this is the real view "behind the curtain."

But, as Our Rulers always say, "There is nothing to be done about it. Nothing."

And Another Thing.

Prominent "progressive" blogger Steve Benen writes:

On the debt ceiling, Dems are willing to accept a trade-off — they’ll accept spending cuts in exchange for at least a little new revenue. That, to them, seems fair. Indeed, it’s probably too fair — in the last 80 years, no party has ever had to pay a ransom to get a party to do their duty.

Eric Cantor has a very different idea about the nature of the process. They see an alternative trade-off — the GOP will accept spending cuts, and in exchange, they won’t deliberately destroy the economy.

Dems are willing to accept concessions to strike a deal. Republicans are willing to not shoot their hostage in the head in exchange for Dems giving the GOP what it wants.

The former is an example of a party negotiating in good faith. The latter is an example of reckless thugs pretending to be a political party.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_07/cantor_conspicuous_confusion_o030791.php

This whole thing is being argued from the wrong premise. Note the bolded part of the excerpt from Washington Monthly above. "... and in exchange, they [the Rs] won't deliberately destroy the economy."

What's wrong with this premise and argument?

Simply this: the "economy" is already destroyed. For millions upon millions of Americans, more each and every day, there is no going back to an economy that used to be, there are no jobs, there is no security in even the basics and necessities of living. Poverty and homelessness are growing at a time when social services have already been cut to the bone or eliminated altogether.

The Rs, just like the Ds, are captive to the forces that deliberately -- or was it purely an accident? -- destroyed the economy. The Rs are not agreeing to accept massive additional cuts in government spending in exchange for not destroying what's already destroyed. They are demanding massive additional cuts in government spending because they can and because they have a Partner in the White House.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling will most certainly make a very difficult economic situation worse for the vast majority of people -- oh well, too bad so sad -- but it will make the economic situation of those who own and control both political parties and their apparatchiks thrilled and delighted. It will not destroy their economy. Hell no. It will plump up their bottom line. All those hideous consequences we keep hearing about: higher interest rates, for example, don't hurt the bond-holders and coupon clippers, do they? Of course not, don't be silly.

The Rs aren't promising not to make things worse for the masses. The cuts in government spending themselves will make things worse for the masses, guaranteed. There is no question of it. EVERYONE KNOWS things will get worse for the many while they will get better for the few, no matter what is done under any of the current scenarios.

How much worse, and only that, is being argued by the High and the Mighty, not whether more millions of Americans will be forced into poverty. That's a given.

If we really don't want that to happen, then we have to argue from a completely different premise, one that recognizes that both parties are fully on board with the premise that imposing as much hardship on the American People as they can get away with is what they are doing and what they intend to do for the indefinite future. The "economy" is already destroyed for the masses. Nothing either party is proposing can or will restore the "economy" for the masses. Not gonna happen.

If we truly want a vibrant economy to be restored for the masses, we will have to do it outside the political process -- a process that is intent on ensuring that the common people's economy is never restored.

Got it? Good.

The Attacks on Social Security and Medicare (and Medicaid, which is something else) are Relentless

As I've been pointing out in other fora, Social Security has already been effectively cut for most seniors through the administrative refusal to allow any COLA this year or last year, and by proposing a tiny COLA for next year that would be immediately gobbled up by higher Medicare premiums.

Social Security administrators insist that no COLA is due to recipients because "there has been no inflation," which is absurd. In fact, costs for basics and necessities -- like food, shelter, heat, transportation, non-prescription drugs and other off-Medicare health care, and so forth have been going up exponentially during this period of Endless Recession. The purchasing power of Social Security benefits have declined substantially in the last two years, as they will continue to do so long as COLAs are denied.

A trial balloon was floated by Our Rulers to see how changing the COLA inflation formula would fly. The idea was to reduce COLAs even further by assuming that as costs for one basic or necessary good or service go up, seniors will substitute cheaper goods or services (even though many are already at the rock bottom price point) and therefore they won't "need" such a generous COLA. Fucking genius! Why wasn't this plan instituted long ago?

The idea was to save a few hundred billion dollars in Social Security payouts -- so as to have the wherewithal to conduct more and ever more imperial wars of aggression while continuing to provide handsome emoluments and tax breaks to the High and the Mighty.

Supposedly, this idea has been shot down -- for now -- but we can bet (and win) that it will come back with a vengeance.

Today there comes news that His Serenity is proposing to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67. Not immediately. He'd wait till after the election next year, but still. And to think, it wasn't that long ago many of us thought, gee, eligibility for Medicare might just be lowered to 55.

I'm so old, I remember when it was taken for granted that "by the year 2000" (what a milestone that was intended to be!) the usual retirement age would be 55, if not actually 50. Now it is 66 for people of my cohort, and it is going up to 67 for those coming after -- this "reform" agreed-to in the 1983 overhaul of Social Security, along with doubling the OASDI tax rate. Obviously, that's not old enough though because people who will never have to worry about their own retirement security are now proposing to raise the retirement age to 70 for those now in the 40's. This is insane.

Meanwhile the assault on public employee pensions continues unabated as well; private sector defined benefit pensions were largely done away with long ago -- except, of course, for the top executives, many of whom leave with super-generous pensions of almost unbelievable amounts. Because ordinary workers in the private sector may not have any pension provisions at all, and they may not have enough income to set aside money for retirement, the thinking among the Ruling Class is that public sector workers -- who have bargained for and have contracts ensuring certain defined benefit pension provisions -- should be forced to sacrifice their pensions "because workers in the private sector don't get pensions..."

Well, some private sector workers do. If they're on the top of the heap, that is.

Meanwhile, savage cuts to Medicaid have been underway since the Endless Recession began, yet even now, this simply fact is widely unrecognized. Of course, most people don't use Medicaid (and most will never be eligible for it) so they don't know -- and for the most part, they don't care -- what's been happening to those on Medicaid. They don't know that eligibility is more and more restricted, that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have been pushed off the Medicaid rolls, even as poverty has skyrocketed in this country. They don't know that fee reimbursements have been repeatedly cut for providers. They don't know that the people who are still able to access Medicaid services have to pay more and more out of pocket for the services they receive. They don't know that the services provided by Medicaid have been reduced, that mental health and dental services are as rare and unavailable to Medicaid recipients as hidden diamonds. On and on and on.

These are things that most Americans have no conception of.

Meanwhile, unemployment benefits are being time restricted in state after state -- even though there are no jobs -- and unemployment benefit amounts are being reduced (even as costs for basics and necessities continue to climb.) This as more and more people wind up not only out of a job, but ineligible for any unemployment compensation at all.

This is what is going on, what has been going on for years, and this is part of what is ensuring that more and more millions of Americans are forced into poverty every year.

It's almost as if it is planned to be that way. Gee. Ya think?

Hating On Teh Government; aka "I'd Rather Have Republicans Screw Me Than Let Spineless Democrats Do It!"

Yes. Well.

There's a point at which this conventional (online) attitude of denouncing government -- no matter who is on the Throne -- and vowing Never to Vote for a Democrat Again (!!!!1™) becomes timesome and old.

Yes, yes, yes. We know. Teh Government -- All Knowing, All Pervasive, All Powerful -- is Teh Evul!!!!1™ and Must Be Killed!!!!1™ and Democrats are Tasteless Jello!!!!1® Ptooie! I vow to only vote for Republicans ever again for as long as I live so help me Flying Spaghetti Monster, Amen!

Yes. Of course some of us have long realized that these incessant "I will NEVER vote for Democrats again! Obomba is Dead To Me! It's time to vote for a Straight Republican Ticket from here on out!" statements that fill the so-called "Progressive" blovosphere© from morning till night, 24/7, are largely the "work" -- well, everybody needs a job -- of Republican and their handmaiden Libertarian operatives who infest the Intertubes like lice. They are secreted everywhere.

The ones who scream the loudest when poked -- "My, that's an interesting Republican meme you're spreading here in this fine 'progressive' forum!" "No I'm NOT! How DARE you! I'm just an EVERYDAY ORDINARY FRUSTRATED Democrat! Ché? Ché? You're a Communist! Shut up!" -- are surely political operatives, but the point of their "work" is to subliminally convince random dissatisfied Democrats that the Answer to their Frustration is to be found in Voting Republican(!!1™) maybe for the first time in their lives. As if that will fix anything.

It won't. And most Democrats don't fall for it, but some do, always, and the hope of these operatives is that in the end, enough will be "persuaded" to vote for the Rs that Victory is Assured. It sometimes works.

But of course putting the Rs in charge is still insane. It is not the Answer, it solves nothing, and all the High and Mighty Principles that are said to guide the Republicans (when God is otherwise occupied) turn out to be ruinous for Ordinary People at home and abroad. Yes, well. We should all know that by now.

Dems are marginally less ruinous for Ordinary People, typically they far less insane, and despite the proliferation of Imperial Wars of Aggression under Obama, they are somewhat less bloodthirsty and cruel. For our purposes, that's about as good as it is gonna get.

The problem is the nature of Government under our political and electoral system.

And that is what cannot and will not be addressed through electoral politics.

Our Constitution is the Original Sin of the State, deeply and fundamentally flawed from the outset, and now, in the modern world, horribly anachronistic, like something out of the 18th Century (well...) that cannot and does not provide for genuine representative government that recognizes and addresses the needs of the People and the Public Interest.

The Government that is built upon that Constitutional origin is the natural result of the flaws inherent in the origin of the State. It's that simple. You can adjust it here and there by putting this or that politician or political party in office, but that cannot and does not change the fundamental nature of the Government that has grown out of the original document.

Our Founders and the Founding Documents they came up with simply don't provide for the requirements of a Modern post-industrial people; the State created at the outset is an encrusted burden on the lowly, while protecting (as it always has) favored constituencies of the well-connected, wealthy and influential. "Constitutionalists" by and large understand that full well, and they like it just fine. They are eager to protect the already protected and exploit the rest of us. That's just how it goes.

Change in Government -- positive change than so many claim to want -- can only come through dealing with the foundations and the nature of the Government. Which means, simply, revolution.

A while back, I made something of a study of the Progressive Era -- which long has been touted as a "fundamental" change in Government in this country. What I found was that Progressivism was primarily an elite means and method of diverting and eventually destroying the Populist Movements of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries -- which were themselves reactions against the horrifying conditions under which most Americans were forced to live by the Plutocrats and Oligarchs who owned and controlled everything worth having and ruled with an iron and often bloody fist through their agents in the bought and paid for Government. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

In other words, the Progressive Revolution was an elite means of putting down a Populist Revolution which came close to sweeping all before it. Populism has been suppressed ever since (we can argue its merits another time).

Progressivism is not Revolutionary at all; it is by nature High Church Conservative, often quite Puritanical and prudish, authoritarian, elitist, and contemptuous of The People. Initially, it was thoroughly racist as well. Once instituted (first in the South, interestingly enough) it became the Standard Operating System of governments throughout the land, and as an Operating System, Progressivism survived until the Reagan Revolution overthrew it, replacing Progressivism with the thoroughly corrupt and reactionary throwback operations of Government we know and loathe today.

Today's "progressives" are far more Libertarian than their namesakes and forebears, but their elitism, Puritanism, and innate authoritarianism is much the same. The great irony of Libertarianism is its overweening imposition of Authority by "private" means, enabled and supported by Government, rather than directly imposed by Government. (All "voluntary" of course!™)

Despite constant failure, today's "progressives" are eager to gain control of the levers of Power in Government, even as they recognize that the Government we have is thoroughly as captive to the Plutocrats and Oligarchs of our era as the Government of the late 19th Century was captive to the High and Mighty of their day. Progressives of that era were able to acquire extraordinary governmental power by a strategy that wasn't necessarily political or electoral at all. Eventually they were able to succeed at the polls, but initially their success came though what we could call coups and seizures of government from Populists. But they also conducted coups and seizures from the corrupt agents of the Plutocrats and Oligarchs. Some of it was done through courtroom spectacles (for example, San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire), and as a consequence of natural disaster (Galveston, 1900; San Francisco, 1906) and sometimes it happened through inertial forces, such as the California Progressive triumph of 1911. Once the example was set, in other words, widespread adoption was made that much easier.

There was energy behind the Early Progressive Movement that doesn't really exist any more, in part because modern progressivism tries to masquerade as something it's not, whether that be some aborted form of populism or a highly attenuated form of Liberalism. The problem is the Libertarian roots of modern "progressivism" and the styles of deception that entails.

Hating on Teh Government and insisting that one will never vote for a Democrat again is self-canceling. One's political aspirations immediately stall. To assert that Republicans are somehow "better" than Democrats because they are So Very Principled is simply absurd. To hate or fear Teh Government because of its All Powerfulness -- while trying desperately to gain a Seat At The Table of the same All-Knowing, All-Pervasive, All-Powerful Government is crazy -- or it is false.

Obsession with electoral politics and the media, which is pretty much all the major players in the "lefty" blogosphere do, is a form of entertainment, not action. It is passive and observational, it is not an agent for "change" at all; in fact, these obsessions reinforce the rightist drift of American politics (which is built in from its origins) and they help maintain the relationship status quo between the Powerful and their Courtiers. Anger and frustration at the antics of politicians and their media is necessary to keep the show going, and so, no matter who or what is occupying the Throne and the Big Table, they and their works are ritualistically denounced. All the time. Incessantly. No matter what. That tendency to denounce (no matter what) is also part of the Libertarian underpinnings of the modern "progressive movement" -- such as it is.

What the early Progressives realized quite clearly was that they could use -- say -- a natural disaster or they could invent a crisis that would enable them to seize the power of the Government from whatever corruption or populism held it beforetime to implement a Progressive program, and having done so, they could then promote their Progressive Success as a reason to institute Progressive policies widely. And behold, it worked.

Modern "progressives" don't seem to understand how to do that. Nor do they comprehend why it might be advisable. Maybe they don't really have an agenda, nor do they really want "change" -- what they want is to keep the Show going, indefinitely.

Maybe in some ways it's for the best!

Meanwhile, hating on Teh Government and announcing that you will never vote for a Democrat again, only for straight ticket Republicans from here on out, is to demonstrate utter foolishness and political irrelevancy.

Also sprach Zarathustra...



(Whatever happened to our Future? The Last Space Shuttle flight is now underway. There will be no more. It's Over.)

Oh, the Gnashing of Teeth; the Rending of Garments

As the Debt Ceiling Deliberations plod on, the levels of mass hysteria increase exponentially. Just what the parties to the secret discussions are prepared to agree to is always a bit of a Mystery -- by design to be sure -- but the outlines are always clear enough:

The current cuts to entitlements and social programs will be continued and extended; taxes -- such as the payroll tax intended to pay for Social Security -- will be cut or cuts currently in place will be extended; the rich and their corporations will not pay any more tax no matter what, no way, no how.

This has been the outline from the beginning of the "negotiations," and nothing at all has come up to suggest there's been any change whatsoever in the closed door deliberations.

A thing to keep in mind is that this is the way all the Big Things the Palace wants to do get done:

• a basic Plan is put forth from the Throne
  
  
• the details of that Plan are not revealed to the Public, but they appear to be known to the principals from the get-go
  
  
• there is much sturm und drang from all parties who issue pro-forma anathemas and denunciations of all other parties
  
  
• deliberations continue behind the scenes and in secret
  
  
• the basic Plan the Throne has issued is adopted by the principals in secret
  
  
• many more anathemas and denunciations are issued, many more lines in the sand are drawn, the End of Civilization is declared repeatedly, passionate gnashing of teeth and rending of garments is de rigueur all around
  
  
• the Plan is circulated among the Opinion Leaders and Congressional Chairs; tweakage occurs here and there to address "issues" identified by favored constituencies
  
  
• the Plan is passed to much huzzah and denunciation, but nobody knows what has actually passed until well after the deed is done
  
  
• the poor, the working class, and the middle class are once again screwed; the upper 1% -- and especially the upper .01% -- are showered with even more benefits and largesse
  
  
• rinse and repeat
  
  

This process has been going on for years without let up. It's been relentless. It is mirrored in the astonishing behavior of a clutch of Republican Governors -- most notoriously Scott Walker of Wisconsin -- who have been applying Shock Doctrine tactics in state after state to restrict the rights of workers (particularly public workers) and limit the ability of the People to redress grievances while savagely cutting social programs and education, and heaping ever greater benefits on the upper 1% and ever greater costs on everyone else.

It is a "Pattern" as it were. It is going on almost everywhere simultaneously, and despite all the gnashing of teeth and the rending of garments, absolutely NOTHING is standing in the way of its successful implementation. NOTHING.

Hundreds of thousands have marched in public protest of whatever the Republican Governors want to do, but it doesn't matter; what they want to do is enacted, period. End of discussion.

Eternal arguments go on over this or that Pronouncement from the Throne, this or that policy adopted by the Congress, this or that Big Thing enacted and/or implemented. But just like the protest demonstrations, the Arguments have a stunning lack of effectiveness; nothing changes for the better in other words.

Oh, but same sex marriage is now the law in New York! Haven't you heard! Yay! Celebrate!

Ahem.

If that's your most important thing, then I suppose all the rest of it doesn't matter.

I suppose.

The real question we should be asking is: "Why has nothing at all been effective in stopping this March Over the Cliff?" It's almost as if we are living through a period of Predestination. Or some one else's Plan. I can see why Apocalyptic visions and religious fervor are at an all time high.

The People and the Public Interest literally have no effect on events whatsoever.

Oh, but there was Egypt! Oh, but there was Tunisia! Where Twitter and WikiLeaks and Popular Will overthrew Rotten Dictatorships in a twinkling! Yay! Celebrate!

Well, except that isn't quite what happened. Other than that, everything is now fine in those Happy Lands. Just ask the residents. They will tell you: "Strangely, all is not fine; strangely, we gained almost nothing."

Strangely, that's kind of how it goes.

Strangely, as the Murdoch Media Empire shudders in Britain, the Murdoch Media Empire's machinations world-wide continue unabated. Corrupt as sin, they still rule without let or hindrance.

Strangely, while the Peoples of the World groan under an ever greater burden of debt and penury, the upper crust of the upper crust counts every greater profits.

Strangely, while Everyone Knows that the draconian austerity economic policies being adopted globally will crush any hint of economic recovery everywhere, nothing at all can or will stop their adoption and implementation, no matter the consequences.

Strangely, what the People say and what the People know is broadly and consistently ignored throughout the Ruling Class in order to ensure that that class receives all the benefits and none of the responsibilities of Success. What is happening in the United States is happening everywhere.

Naomi Klein described and predicted it in detail years ago.

But strangely, seeing it in action, everywhere all at once, is more numbing than activating.

Strangely, nothing at all stands in the way of the Four Horsemen riding roughshod over the land.

Nothing at all.

Driving Across the West on a Holiday Weekend

As I was driving west on the I-40 this past weekend, I was playing the radio as I tend to do when I'm driving, and I heard this song, called "Cost of Livin'" come up on one of the Country Top 40 programs. It's Ronnie Dunn's new single, follow up to his solo hit, "Bleed Red," and I have to confess, I was stunned almost speechless by it.

You're seeing him do it live in the video above, and it's quite rough -- which may be even more effective given the subject matter -- but the version released as a single is very polished... and completely heartbreaking.

There once was a time when country music had lots of Outlaw song and Outlaw performers as part of the culture being celebrated. But that's no longer the case, and it hasn't been for quite a while. Instead, the genre is dominated by "I know my place, and I HAPPY with my place! HAPPY!" songs that are kind of stomach turning when you think about it. The whole point of these songs is to make sure the underclass, specifically the redneck Stars 'n' Bars underclass, stays tame in the midst of so much suffering for the masses.

And this song, "Cost of Livin'," fits into that category nicely.

Until you listen to it.

And then if you don't feel the need to do something about the horror that people are being put through -- or slit your wrists in despair -- I would wonder if you really have any sense of another's pain, lack of dignity, and reduction to abject submission.

The lyrics:

Everything to know about me
Is written on this page
The number you can reach me
My social and my age
Yes I served in the army
It’s where I learned to shoot
Eighteen months in the desert
Pourin’ sand out of my boots
No I’ve never been convicted of a crime
I could start this job at any time.

I got a strong back
Steel toes
I rarely call in sick
A good truck
What I don’t know
I catch on real quick
I work weekends
If I have to
Nights and holidays
Give you 40
And then some
Whatever it takes
Three dollars and change at the pump
Cost of livin’s high and goin’ up.

I put Robert down as a reference
He's known me all my life
We attend the same church
He introduced me to my wife
Gave my last job everything
Before it headed south
Took the shoes off of my children's feet
The food out of their mouths
Yesterday my folks offered to help
But they’re barely getting by themselves

I got a strong back
Steel toes
I rarely call in sick
A good truck
What I don’t know
I catch on real quick
I work weekends
If I have to
Nights and holidays
Give you 40
And then some
Whatever it takes
Three dollars and change at the pump
Cost of livin’s high and goin’ up.

I'm sure a hundred others have applied
Rumor has it you're only takin' five

I got a strong back
Steel toes
I'm handy with a wrench
There's nothing I can't drive
Nothing I can't fix
I work sun-up to sun-down
Ain't too proud to sweep the floors
Bank has started calling
And the wolves are at my door
Three dollars and change at the pump
Cost of livin’s high and goin’ up.

Before I left New Mexico this time, I was yakking with neighbors who were having a yard sale -- trying to sell off practically all the remaining contents of their house before they sell the house too. They've been having yard sales every few weeks for a year. They put the property on the market a few months ago and they just reduced the price to what the bank has said they will accept, which is considerably less than they owe. They say they have not had an offer yet, but they are hoping that an older couple from further out of town will buy their house so as to live close in. It will be a little less expensive for them, too. It may seem like these are small things, selling off your stuff, your house, your spare car -- what really got to me was that Walter was selling off his Gibson guitar, a beautiful Les Paul Signature, something he's treasured for years, and something you just don't sell lightly. Nor is it that they are poor, nor have they fallen completely out of the middle class... yet. No, they've been maintaining two households, one in town (ie: Albuquerque) where the jobs are -- such as they are, and I'll get to that in a moment -- and one out in the country where the kids have been going to school. But the oldest daughter just graduated from high school, and the cost of the commute back and forth, together with the cost of maintaining two households was just too much. (Believe me, I understand!) Something's got to give. So, they're... liquidating their assets in the country. To say they've been somewhat disappointed with results is to be kind.

Meanwhile, before I left New Mexico this time, I was yakking on the phone with a former neighbor who moved into Albuquerque a couple of years ago when she was offered a free-rent house-sitting gig for a University couple who were going on sabbatical overseas. She still comes out to our place in the country from time to time to feed the feral cats she was taking care of before she moved. But it's getting harder and harder what with the cost of living and the fact that she has to pay rent now, and so many other things have gone wrong -- she was in a terrible accident on the freeway, injured and her truck was totaled, among so many other incidents -- and now she was telling me that her employer is cutting back, letting go 7 people last week, more likely soon, and everyone else has had their work cut by one day a week for the last two months. Naturally she's scared.

We were talking about all the news of "good times" coming back to New Mexico, but for whom exactly would that be? Not for the masses, not a bit of it, not at all. Things are getting worse. She said her son just found a job, at half the salary he was making before. He'd been out of work for two years before landing this position, and he feels lucky to have a job at all.

There is no economic recovery for the many; and in New Mexico, the difference between the many and the few is stark and very visible.

Ronnie Dunn has a house up in Santa Fe, up off of Hyde Park Rd, a beautiful spread with a expansive view of the city lights below and the Jemez (burning) to the west. Down below, the working people, if they can find a job at all, look up to the houses of the High and the Mighty dotting the hillsides all around the town and think, "Gee, it must be nice."

Yeah, well. I'm sure it must. Happy Fourth.

And Another Thing About Greece

It seems to be conventional wisdom that Greece will default on its debts. Not immediately, but soon enough. And the only point of the draconian austerity measures being imposed by the Bankster cartels and their captive governments is to squeeze the most possible out of the Greek People before the inevitable default.

Makes sense to me.

It's Greek To Me

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/29/greek_parliament_approves_40b_bailout_some

I heard Weisbrot on an NPR story the other day discussing the Greek situation with an absolutely giddy bubblehead who was practically peeing herself over how the Greek parliament would be forced to submit to the demands of Greece's creditors, and how the People of Greece would be punished -- finally -- for their profligacy.

Weisbrot was literally shocked at this woman's complete idiocy and said that if this were happening in the United States, millions more would be forced out of work than already can't find work, and the Recession would go on indefinitely. Is that what she wanted? He pointed out that what is happening is a devastating blow to the ordinary people of Greece, and there is no way in hell that they deserve to be forced to pay for demands of bankers.

She sputtered for a bit, but could not suppress her glee at seeing other people forced under the thumb of the powerful.

My stomach was churning through the whole interview. But that's the state of our media: loves it when other people are forced to comply with the demands of the Powerful. Loves it.

Infuriating

And illuminating.



It's an hour and fourteen minutes of stomach churning and fury.

Link: http://youtu.be/qKpxPo-lInk

The Greeks are currently engaged in a national General Strike, a necessary step in throwing off the shackles of the International Banksters.

"Peripheral Europe" must all follow suit.

The German and French People are being lied to. They must wake up.

And one day, maybe Americans will put aside their constant obliviousness and wake up too.

NeoLiberalism is Slavery.

NeoConservatism is Death.

Tumbrils and guillotines, people, tumbrils and guillotines.

Ian Welsh on Cuomo and the NY Gay Marriage Thing

This is so true and it cannot be made any clearer:

• 1) The left sells each other out for either small tactical gains, or nothing at all (hello national NARAL) all the time, so why shouldn’t the gays promise to help Cuomo in his next election for giving them gay marriage, even if it screws unions and helps an austerity governor?
  
  
• 2) The reason gays get anything is that unlike the rest of the left, they did two things: they cut off the donations, and they got ugly in people’s faces. They stopped playing nice. They stopped playing by the rules. They stopped worrying about whether people in power “liked” them (hello National NARAL) and started playing rough.
  
  
• 3) Given that the left doesn’t hang together, which means that the choice is “gay marriage + austerity”, or “no gay marriage + austerity”, well, why not gay marriage plus a shitty economy?

Of course it is impolite to say so. It is always impolite to point out that on the "left" there is no solidarity, only a competing series of discreet interests, vying for the Royal Nod, and in the case of gay marriage, it's been obvious for years.

(I've never been a fan of gay marriage as an issue at law. Marriage, in my humble opinion, is fundamentally a religious sacrament -- banging that Old Tyme Catholic gong, don't you know -- that has no place in Law. If religious/faith practitioners want to sanction same sex marriage, I say hurrah. Some have been doing just that for decades. No, these marriages have no legal standing in most jurisdictions, and that's a problem. But the way to deal with that, in my opinion, is to get the Law and the State out of the marriage business altogether. To the extent the Law and the State need to recognize and/or sanction marriage unions, it is solely as a civil matter, without regard to religious interests or issues. Therefore, the only legal and state interest should be in gender neutral "civil unions". That's it, period, nothing else at law. That way, religious freedom and custom is preserved and protected, and so is the interest of the people, community and the state. The whole push for gay marriage has in my view been off base -- and intentionally offensive to traditionalists. But that's not actually what Ian is pointing out...)

No, what's he's getting at, which I essentially agree with, is that the New York Gay Marriage measure is effectively a trade for votes, votes for policies that will cause great harm to millions of New Yorkers by advancing 'Austerity' and Bankster Protection. But, hey! Gay folk can get married now! Yay!

Ian's view about it may be too sour by half, but at the same time he's right.

The Fires

The sense of place around here in New Mexico includes an understanding that Fire will come, and sometimes it will be... awful.

When I was driving east through Gallup this trip (two weekends ago), the smoke from the Wallow Fire in Arizona, some 150 miles away, was settling on the town in a choking gray and yellow fog. It was pretty bad, but the situation in Albuquerque the previous week had been much worse, as the smoke lingered over the city like a shroud. People were advised not to use their swamp coolers or open windows or doors because of the smoke. Oh. Swamp coolers are the main cooling devices in this part of the nation, and going without them in triple digit temperatures is probably worse than breathing the smoke after it's been washed by the water cooler filter pads. Well, you would think anyway.

After I got out here to our place in the East Mountains, the smoke situation was mostly tolerable, though there were a couple of days when it was severe.

The Raton Fire caused much grief up north, but it's mostly out now. There were some smaller fires in the Manzanos and around Estancia, a really big one by Carlsbad, and another over by Clovis, but all of those have been mostly contained.

I could see the smoke plume from the Pacheco Fire up in Santa Fe when it started, and I thought, "Oh no." The fire has been burning in the Santa Fe National Forest pretty much uncontained ever since. It's not pleasant for the locals but the fire is not burning toward nor particularly near the city, so... it's become kind of the New Normal, at least for now. I saw the smoke plume from the Pacheco Fire when I was up in Santa Fe on Sunday, but there was little or no smoke in town which was a relief.

As I was leaving town on Sunday, though, I saw a HUGE new smoke plume rising from the Jemez Mountains to the west, so astonishing that people were stopping on the highway to gawp at it.

That's the Las Conchas Fire that's burning so close to Los Alamos (and Cochiti Lake, but who has ever heard of that?) right now and has caused the full evacuation of the town of Los Alamos and the closure of the Nuclear Lab. Los Alamos suffered terrible fire damage about 11 years ago, and the locals are not amused that it could happen again, though there is some relief that the forests that burned in 2000 haven't regrown to any great extent. The Lab personnel claim they have been doing forest thinning around the Lab since the 2000 fire, so they aren't expecting things to get really bad even if the new fire comes much closer to the Lab than it already has (some spot fires quickly put out.)

Hundreds of homes were burned in Los Alamos in 2000, and that's what they're worried could happen again. Yes. It's a valid concern all over New Mexico and wherever people live in the forest. There have been many devastating fires over the years, blasting through the forest sectors like bombs, leaving nothing but cinders in their wake.

The Governor is pleading with New Mexicans to avoid buying or using fireworks this Fourth of July, and I've noticed that my neighbors around here, some of whom like to blow off fireworks all year round -- cause it's fun and pretty! -- have been very discreet. If they are blowing off fireworks, there's no sign of it.

People know how dangerous it is.

They say the Las Conchas Fire was probably started by downed power lines. Other fires have been started by sparks from ATVs, and one in the Bosque in Albuquerque the other day was apparently started by some fool with fireworks (oops!). Typically fires at this time of year start from lightning strikes, but there's been very little of that. There's no rain, none to speak of since February -- and that was snow. There are very few clouds. It is major drought time, as severe as I've ever seen it here, though old timers say it was worse about ten years ago. That was the worst drought any of them had witnessed in these parts. But this is dry country even when it isn't in drought.

Fire is part of the natural cycle.

It's usually not so pervasive. Even when the fires are relatively distant, there are times when you feel surrounded just the same. It's part of the Place.

Place

I've been in New Mexico for a couple of weeks now, and I plan to stay till the July 4th Weekend when I expect to hightail it back to California and stay for another three weeks or so and then come back here. It is part of the continuing process of leaving a long-time home in California and setting up permanent residence in New Mexico. It is a long and drawn-out process for us with many moving parts.

I took the picture above in March when I was here for a couple of weeks and took a trip up to Santa Fe for some exploration off the beaten path. That's the view toward Santa Fe on the road I take, the Sangre de Christo mountains in the distance.

I went up to Santa Fe yesterday and attended a lecture on the topic of "Captive Women" -- exciting, no? -- in the context of the Slave Culture of the Southwest. (pdf link to a book review) Well, it's a somewhat complicated topic. This region is in many ways still culturally a part of Mexico (much as Los Angeles and most of Southern California is). But it also has a very strong Native American cultural influence (which Southern California largely lacks.) The Anglo gloss over the top of it all is still widely considered to be a form of entertainment -- and is not expected to last.

The "slave culture" of the Southwest has to do both with the common practices of Native American societies and with the commonplace colonial practices of the Spanish in America. Capturing slaves and holding them -- and/or selling them -- was what was widely done by Natives and Hispanos, apparently until quite recently.

But it is complex because in Native society -- and to an extent in American-Spanish society -- slaves captured in raids become members of the household and often marry into the family. It was just the way things were.

Anglos on their High Horses disapproved, of course, and many religious Anglos came out to the Southwest from Back East to redeem the slaves of New Mexico -- only to cause a spike in the slave trade because, of course, they were paying cash money for redemption of slaves. So more were captured to be turned in for cash.

In a marginal economy like New Mexico's still is in some respects, what are you going to do?

The fact that slaving was relatively commonplace in New Mexico up until fairly recently (reports of slaves in New Mexican households go right up to the 1940's) and that almost all the captives were women and children from various Indian peoples (some from Mexico itself), and that going on periodic slave raids was what was done, and that being taken captive wasn't necessarily all that terrible a thing is one of New Mexico's long held "secrets." Of course it was a "secret" out in the open, but there you are.

It was not the same as black chattel slavery in the American South, not by a long shot -- because it was based on Native practices rather than justified by reference to Biblical cant. And as far as anyone is willing to say, it was never as brutal nor as ridiculously restrictive, nor as racist, nor as inhumane as black chattel slavery. On the other hand, it's not an excusable practice for those reasons. I say from the saddle of my Anglo-Irish High Horse!

It's part of the history and culture of the Southwest and New Mexico in particular, and it shouldn't be sidestepped because "you just don't talk about such things."

The stories that a couple of hundred of us heard told yesterday -- quite a turn out, I would say, for a lecture on a fairly obscure topic -- were partly "lifting the veil" stories, telling us things we didn't know. The point was made that we pass by all sorts of sites on our travels around New Mexico that are primary sites of the Southwest slave trade and genizaro communities, and we might never give it a thought. We should give it a thought. We should never forget. We should recognize and honor those captives and the contributions they made to New Mexico's history and culture.

Much of what we think of as unique about New Mexico, and why this is often considered to be "another country," is the result of a much more complicated past than most of us realize.

Pots and Pans, People, Pots and Pans

How Spain Launched a Revolution.

Tell me again why the American Government insists on pursuing imperial wars of aggression no matter what.

On What Works

The Ruling Class and their tireless agents in the Republican Party have it made it very clear that they do not retreat, they do not surrender; neither do they negotiate in good faith, nor do they compromise. They are the Ruling Class, after all. They declare, they command, they order, they rule.

Everyone else has the choice to submit. That is their only rational choice. Should they choose to do otherwise, they will pay a heavy price for their insolence.

This behavior of the rentiers and their tireless agents has been going on for so long now that it seems to be the normal state of affairs. Orders and commands are issued and by and bye they are obeyed.

Of course, it means that ordinary people are sacrificing practically everything they have on the command of the Ruling Class and their tireless agents. If they can manage to keep a job at all, ordinary people are working harder than ever and they are earning less, sometimes 75% less, than they did just two or three years ago.

They are paying more and ever more for necessities.

Their retirement security is being stolen from them piece by piece: first their pensions, then the value of their retirement accounts, then the value of their homes and property, then their Social Security and Medicare benefits.

More and more overseas wars of aggression are started in their names, others are continued into the indefinite future.

We see in the protests in Europe that the Ruling Class is not just unmoved by popular unrest, they in fact have doubled down on their demands for austerity, imposing even harsher conditions on the hapless populations than previously thought.

The nominally Socialist governments yield, without any fight at all. They believe they have no other rational choice than to yield and by yielding, they seal their own political fates, but maybe that doesn't matter. Perhaps they are rewarded by their Owners and Sponsors for "doing the right thing," ie: putting the entire burden of the financial and economic collapse on the masses, putting none of the burden on the financiers and rentiers.

That is, after all, the point of "austerity," no matter where it is imposed, and no matter the precipitating cause. The masses, the People, must and will be made to pay for the recklessness of their financial Overlords.

Street protest, which has roiled Greece and the other countries being squeezed dry by the Financial Interests, has had no positive effect at all. Governments ignore the Street in "Peripheral Europe" just as they once did in the Arab World. Oh, but that changed, didn't it?

In the Euro-Core -- ie: France and Germany -- which is ostensibly being "protected" by the austerity measures being imposed on Peripheral Europe, the public is being propagandized to believe that they are being "forced" to work harder and longer to bail out Greece and the other Peripheral countries, and they are steaming mad about it.

But they're being lied to. "Greece" as a nation, and the People of Greece are not being bailed out. National sovereignty is being extinguished, and the People of Greece are being forced to pay off the gambling debts of the financial class, in full. With interest. The People of Germany and France are being forced to pay off those same debts, not Greece's debts, the gambling debts of the Euro-Banksters, just like here in the United States, where the Banksters have been paid off for the same losses over and over and over again. Once the cycle starts it is almost impossible to stop.

Governments are so completely in thrall to their financiers and Banksters, they cannot imagine saying "No!" to the extortion demands they face, and when Iceland, alone, said "No!", the propaganda went into full cry insisting that's not what the People and their government said at all. It's astonishing to witness.

But as usual, peoples are being set against one another in these trying times.

Iceland said "No!" Years ago Argentina said "No!" All over Latin America, governments came to the conclusion that the austerity measures that were being demanded of them for more loans simply weren't in the national or popular interest, and more and more they said "No!"

Surprisingly, the world did not end.

Nor did these nations collapse. Saying "No!" was what these governments needed to do then, and it is what the governments of Peripheral Europe need to do now, but they are paralyzed with fear of the consequences to them, personally, of saying "No!"

They cannot do it. Not yet.

The plug has to be pulled on the financial class once and for all.

The way that's done is the way it's always been done: by effectively nationalizing the banks, strictly regulating currency and financial transactions, prohibiting and punishing speculation, and seizing assets of the hyper wealthy. The financial class may try to fight back, by freezing credit, but they can only go so far in that direction before they are face to face with their own intrinsic vulnerability. As we have seen whenever the demands of the financier class are refused and rejected, the financiers rather quickly back off and seek out other marks for predation.

The class is highly vulnerable because they don't deal in either a product or a service, they deal in fantasy. Most of the bubble wealth and the extortion they thrive on is simply phantom wealth; but it's all they know.

Convincing governments to do what's necessary to free the People from the predation of the financiers is no simple task, though. We see that the pleading of the People -- such as has been taking place in Spain and Portugal -- doesn't work. Anarchist riots (as in Greece) don't work. Replacing governments (as in Ireland) doesn't work.

What does work are sustained General Strikes. Surrounding and shaming the wealthy can be very effective. Making their lives miserable, and making it impossible for their companies to function are the key ways of bringing about necessary liberation from their thrall, but it is necessary to shut down the operations of the complicit governments as well, and all of this involves greater or lesser physical and financial risks in the short term that, for the most part, ordinary people are not particularly willing to endure -- unless they are relatively certain of success.

Ian Welsh posted an outline of strategies for resistance and change that's worth considering. There is more, much more, to effective resistance. The key is to shut down the operations of the Overclass -- which is probably easier in this technological age than many of us realize -- and hamstring their governmental servants. Make it impossible for them to function. Suddenly, their tune changes, and what was once implacable is suddenly yielding.

Right now, of course, they are yielding nothing because they don't think they have to. In fact, they are redoubling their demands. Governments are yielding en masse.

But that can change in a twinkling.

"Broadening the Tax Base"

This is the Dream of Dreams for our governing class: Make everyone pay "taxes," instead of the barely 50% who currently do. By "taxes" is meant the individual income tax, of course, the Holy Grail of taxation for Our Rulers because it provides the bulk of the operating (non-borrowing) revenue that the Government requires. It's a wonderful tax mechanism for the Government because it is revenue withheld directly from wage-earners' paychecks; since they never see it, they never (really) notice it's gone. They've become so accustomed to living on less than they actually earn that they'll even front the Government X-number of dollars over the course of the year, only requesting the overage returned when when it comes time to filing tax returns -- providing the Government with a short term interest free loan. Excellent.

But only about half the wage earners in this country are subject to the individual income tax because they don't make enough money to qualify. A goodly number not only don't pay individual income taxes, they receive a refundable credit from the Government -- which can amount to thousands of dollars -- merely for working at all and having a family.

Almost all workers, of course, are subject to payroll taxes, however -- to fund Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment Insurance. Social Security taxes are only collected on wage income up to $106,000, though.

The payroll taxes are in effect a Flat Tax on wage income, and a Flat Tax is advocated by some to replace the not very steeply graduated income tax that attempts to impose a higher rate of income taxation on higher earners, but often enough, higher earners pay a lower effective rate of taxation than lower income wage earners. Much snickering at the Country Club over that little factoid you can be sure.

Interestingly, Flat Tax advocates are at odds with those who want to "broaden the tax base" because as a general rule Flat Taxers would exempt the first $20,000 or even $30,000 of income from being taxed. Tax Base Broadeners would, on the other hand, apply the income tax to every dollar that a worker earns, closing "loopholes" and eliminating "exemptions" -- and of course eliminating tax "expenditures" such as the Earned Income Tax Credit. The point being to subject everyone who works for wages to the individual income tax, even if it means they only pay a few tens or hundreds of dollars in individual income taxes.

Income taxes were initially imposed on only the highest 2% or 3% of earners, not on "everyone," nor was the income tax ever intended to be applied to "everyone," so those who now advocate for "broadening the tax base" by applying the individual income tax to "everyone" are actually making a radical proposal for restructuring the income tax and its application from what it has been historically to what they think it should be.

From the indications, some of them seem to think the individual income tax should be like the payroll tax: it should apply to every dime of wage income, up to a certain point, when -- magically -- "poof," it doesn't apply any more.

It would really be something if they finally got their way. Advocacy for "broadening the tax base" has been underway for decades, at least since Roosevelt, and quite likely since Wilson. At this point, they are nearly there, what with the Simpson-Bowles Plan actually promoting the idea as part of a radical reinvention of the tax code.

Those who see taxation as punishment are the ones most likely to favor an income tax scheme that applies to everyone who earns less than a certain amount -- just as the Social Security tax does now. In their world, you should pay less tax the more money you make as a reward for your Success. Ultimately, in that scheme of taxation, the lower-earning taxpayers would be the only taxpayers, and their taxes would be used first for the military. Any surplus would be used to subsidize the projects and lifestyles of the High and the Mighty, under whose sufferance the lowly are permitted to live. It's a Randian wet-dream.

But we're not quite to that point yet. Not quite.

The more pressing goal, it seems, is to revise the tax code so that lower earners are indeed subject to paying individual income taxes, many for the first time; in addition, the plan seems to be to reduce or eliminate tax expenditures, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the home mortgage deduction (among others). EITC reduction or elimination will, of course, impact only lower income wage earners. It will have no effect on the High and the Mighty at all. The elimination of the home mortgage deduction might affect them -- especially if their palace has recently been refinanced -- but it can be easily offset by reducing tax rates on the Highest and the Mightiest, and by eliminating all sorts of nuisance taxes like the so-called Death Tax.

The precipitous reduction of tax rates at the highest end is a further goal of tax base broadeners. The idea is that if the lowly are finally paying Their Fair Share (haha), the High and the Mighty won't have to pay as much as they do now. So their rates can be reduced significantly and the Government will still take in more money. It's win-win, you see.

The truly radical would eliminate any taxation on the incomes of the Very Wealthy, and they might even go so far as to offer the handsome subsidies to the very top of the heap in order, say, for them to have an "incentive" to employ a few Proles in some menial jobs to keep them from rioting. The beauty part of that is that the lowly would actually wind up paying their Betters to be employed at all. It is genius.

"Broadening the tax base" is mentioned periodically almost in passing during the intense "debate" over the budget and raising the debt ceiling and whatnot, but it seems to be some kind of peripheral interest of tax wonks, not a core principle of the radical reactionaries who have largely bought and paid for the Government. Much like the payroll tax cut that was instituted as part of the tax bargain made at the end of last year, though -- without debate and without the knowledge of the public or media prior to enactment -- these radical proposals for "broadening the tax base" are likely to be enacted stealthily, without debate and without the prior knowledge of the public.

And once they are, more than likely there will be wild cheers and parties among the Governing class and their Sponsors, there will be shrugs among the tattered remnants of the middle class, and there will be OUTRAGE!!!™-- with no outlet -- among the impotent lowly.

(The only saving grace here is that my Predict-o-Meter has been on the fritz for a good long time, and therefore none of this may come to pass. What will come to pass is something No One Could Have Predicted. And whatever it will be is worse. By far. We'll see.)

What's the Point of Lifting the Veil?

Lifting the Veil from S DN on Vimeo.

This is Metanoia's long-awaited documentary follow-up to their previous exposés about what's really what, and while I think it is an excellent piece of documentary filmmaking of the utter outrageousness of the economic situation we've been facing for years now and the complicity of the political system in keeping things this way, unless there is an action plan to really change things, knowing what's behind the curtain doesn't help in the least.

Knowing how Our Betters have been misbehaving and robbing the rest of us blind all these years without any plan or even intention to reclaim any of what's been stolen from us -- and is being stolen -- by the High and the Mighty Bandits gets us nowhere at all. It's just adding to the worry and the frustration and the anger that's already there without any productive outlet.

When lifting the veil is an end in itself, as it is more and more to the many Veil Lifter Entrepreneurs that proliferate in bad times and good, there's little point in it.

At some point, we don't need to know any more about how rotten Our Rulers and their Sponsors are.

At some point, action is more important than knowing what's behind the curtain.

Nevertheless, watch the film. Take your blood pressure medicine. And be on the lookout for strategic actions in your neighborhood.... ;-).

Why Is The "Left" So Deeply Invested in Republicans?

For a little while, I thought the rather absurd focus on Republican candidates, characters, office holders and policies on the "left" had abated. But I was wrong. The "left" is entirely invested in the Republican Party, Republican candidates and Republican policies, and can consider and talk about almost nothing else.

It doesn't matter that the "left" is often critical of or mocking Republicans. So long as they are the center of attention -- "all eyes on them" as it were -- Republicans rule.

As if they held complete power in a one party state verging on totalitarianism.

The United States has long been an authoritarian society -- often much more severely so than it is now -- but it has generally resisted totalitarianism. Now, I'm not so sure. As the economic situation continues to deteriorate for the millions, while those on top prosper as never before, a kind of home grown totalitarianism may be inevitable.

For quite a while, each political party was eager to pick the other party's presidential (and sometimes congressional) candidates, or at least to have a significant influence on the selection. It was a game of sorts, sometimes involving dirty tricks, but typically revolving around "chatter" and where possible, voter limitation and suppression. By controlling what was said and heard and who voted, each party sought to dominate the other. The People had little to do with it -- except to the extent they could be manipulated to go along with the program of the political consultants.

But what I see going on now is qualitatively different. Yes, of course, controlling what is said and heard is still important, as is voter suppression -- which is now quite deliberate and out in the open. But now it is no longer a matter of choosing the other party's candidates or influencing the choice. For all intents and purposes, it appears that the Democratic Party has collapsed as a political entity. It has become a pseudo-oppositional subsidiary of the dominant Republican Party, much as Congress and the courts became appendages of the Executive Branch during the Bush Years, something the Obama administration has only partially reversed.

A vestigial Democratic Party is simply uninteresting to observers. Democrats have no power or authority as a political party since they seem to be in complete thrall to their Republican Overlords, indeed more and more Democrats appear to be Republicans themselves -- perhaps Rockefeller Republicans, but Republicans nonetheless.

And as this One Party State develops, what you can do and what you can say and what your future will be diminishes.

You either conform to the will of a tiny minority of primarily banking interests (a totalitarianism of Banksters?) that insists on impoverished drudgery for those who can continue to be employed (ah, shades of Orwells Proles!), and irrelevance for everyone else.

The political Parties are nothing but Show, and not a very good Show at that. Meaningless elections can continue, but Rule is closely held and more and more personal among a diminishing handful of Favorites at the Top. We the People have nothing whatever to do with it.

The "Left" (so-called) is so deeply invested in Republicans and what they do and all their clowning and bizarre antics because the Republicans are the purest expression and face of the Rulers over us. The Dems are not even putting on a good show anymore.

There is a vestigial Real Left in this country, but you would never know it from appearances. In time it may reemerge, but for now, it is essentially underground. In the meantime, more and more Americans are simply withdrawing from the Perpetual Show that has taken the place of the Public Interest in the political realm. They are turning their backs and developing alternatives.

The Government may be in total thrall to the Banksters and their determination to extort the last dime and drop of blood from the masses, but the People themselves have long been strategizing ways to thwart them. If Government really does descend into a kind of neo-Feudal totalitarianism -- the direction its headed -- "opting out" will become more and more common. Our Rulers won't care, at least not until their extortion payments are no longer forthcoming.

And then?

Well, "Hello Greece!"

The New Normal Ain't What We Thought It Would Be

The local PBS station has been running a BBC series on NASA and the early days of the Space Program called "The Space Age: NASA's Story." (Yes, we're very deluxe here now. We have some broadcast TeeVee, meaning lots of PBS and Religion stations. Amazing.) It's a remarkable series in part because it is so fascinatingly able to evoke the spirit of an Era of Endless Possibility that is now long gone. An era so distant in the past now, it's like it never existed. It's all a myth, isn't it?

As if there never was a Space Program and Mankind never went into space. Or if it happened, it was just a Big Mistake. Never mind.

Isn't that something?

What with millions of Americans being forced into poverty every year of this Endless Recession, and millions of Europeans being forced into poverty every year, and millions of Arabs and other Muslims not only being forced into poverty but being subject to random Death From Above thanks to an extensive American drone program, and millions of Russians long since forced into poverty and on and on, all to pay off the gambling debts of a number of high flying private sector financial interests, the Future Americans and Europeans and Russians once thought would be theirs is now barely even a memory.

Space? Who cares? How about a little more interest in what goes on down here on Earth?

Paying off the gambling debts of financiers at 100% is more important to our governments than anything else in the whole wide world, and they choose to pay those debts on behalf of the financiers at the expense of the People, and without the consent of the People.

Naturally enough, this is a somewhat volatile situation, which apparently Our Rulers are aware of, but for which they seem to have no effective answer apart from outright repression.



What's going on in Greece is very dramatic to be sure, but it is merely a heightened version of what has been going on in much of Europe for months, even years. The public is up in arms -- well, unarmed, but that's another issue -- over the draconian impositions and cutbacks required by the EuroBanksters. The People are up in arms because they know full well that the Banksters are demanding full payment (with interest) from them for losses the Banksters incurred through their own gambling obsessions and addictions. The People are up in arms because their Future is being stolen from them right before their eyes with the full complicity of their nominally "Socialist" governments.

It seems to be dawning on the truly frightfully stupid and greedy Powers That Be that squeezing the People endlessly in order to fill the coffers of the Banksters in perpetuity may have a Downside that ought to be considered. Austerity for the People may not be the answer to the Banksters' dilemma, though they still call for it in unison, not only in Europe but everywhere in the West.

In the East, particularly in India and China, not so much. Not yet, anyway.

The People are seeing all of their governments in total thrall to a handful of financial interests, without the slightest concern for the interests of the People. Governments all over the West simply ignore the People and their OUTRAGE!!!!™ at being constantly pillaged and plundered and impoverished to serve the Banksters and their pecuniary demands.

This is quite a different situation than any of us -- that is, the Common Folk -- could have anticipated even as recently as two years ago. It's certainly not the Future any of us believed would come about through our hard work and dedication.

One of the things I think many of the Common Folk realize is that our hard work and dedication has already paid for the Better Future we... thought... would be ours, and that Future has been... stolen... by a handful of incredibly stupid and incredibly greedy individuals (think Enron on a global scale) who are convinced they are Smart and Generous to a Fault, and that all wealth and the fruits of other people's labors are theirs by right.

The problem, as always, is that the People do not know what to do about it, and they are very reluctant to take on the additional risk of doing anything about it when they are being pillaged.

The people (and dogs!) in the streets of Greece -- and elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East -- are taking those risks in part because they have little or nothing left to lose. Not only is their Future gone, their present is being squandered and shuttered, and their history is being sold off for pennies. All to pay off the gambling debts of a handful of Banksters.

Meanwhile, Mother Nature seems to be knocking on the door. Fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and droughts should be reminders of just how puny our little lives really are in the face of the Omnipotence of Nature.

Then there are the nuclear meltdowns and what have you.

The question is, who will understand what's happening better and sooner?

The Continuing Obsession with Republicans

You've got to hand it to the Republican Party Powers That Be: they have fielded such a troupe of energetic clowns and mountebanks that almost the whole Democratic/Progressive political class is utterly mesmerized.

dKos has been All Rs All the Time for weeks now, and it looks like the diversion from anything "Democrat" over there might be permanent. As you scour the so-called Lefty blogosphere you will find constant discussion of Republicans, Rightists, and their Fellow Travelers, almost nothing about their ostensible political opposition -- except note taken of the fact that the Dems have caved once again, and the White House is making nice with the Rs -- though the Rs continue to hurl epithets and curses no matter.

As the motto says, "All publicity is Good Publicity," so even when the Rs are being mocked and denounced in the so-called "Lefty" blogosphere, the fact is they are the constant -- permanent? -- center of attention, and as long as that's the case, there is no real opposition to them. They Rule, completely.

It reminds me of what happened with the recent AARP flap. Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal published a front page article implying that AARP had "changed its position" and would now "accept cuts" to Social Security benefits. All hell broke loose on the so-called "left." Now there are plenty of reasons to be less than enthusiastic about AARP, but this story was just phony from the word go. It was -- you might almost imagine -- a deliberate provocation by Murdoch and his tools at the WSJ to see what could be stirred up. The so-called "left" went into hyperdrive denouncing AARP and all it stood for, which must have pleased Murdoch no end, as he had been busy stirring up the same sort of denunciations of AARP from the Right for years. The only problem was that the story was... not true. You can argue with AARP's positions on a lot of things, but they haven't changed their position on Social Security, and the implication that they had was false, deliberately false in my view.

But the story became the center of an absolute firestorm on the "left" for days. Just so, almost any one of the R presidential candidates can set off days of howling denunciations or distracted criticism on the "left." Practically any R office holder can do the same (Scott Walker, anyone? Rick Scott? The Devil Himself, John Kasich?) Or how about Newt?

The Problem here is that all this obsessing on the Rs leaves essentially no room for anything else, like coming up with something better and strategies to get there. What it means is what I posted over at Digby's Place: "Murdoch pwned the left. Again."

What passes for the "left" is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party and its media tools -- because the so-called "left" can focus on nothing at all except what the Rs are doing and what the corporatist media says is important.

Funny-sad.

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UPDATE: Apparently others have noticed the total spectrum dominance of the Republicans at dKos among other supposedly "lefty" sites on the Intertubes, and behold, dKos comes up with a break in Constant Republican Promotion on the Front Page to actually suggest there might be an alternative.

Their "Think Big" front page series finally starts (on the Internet, everything always "starts," nothing ever finishes, though) to consider the idea that there might could be an alternative to the Rightist Future of Decline and Despair that's been pounded into us for decades.

Think Big: Labor Law

Think Big: Small Business Administration

Think Big: Higher Education

Think Big: Pick Your Fights

Caveat: none of these Big Thinks are all that Huge when you get down to it. In fact, they are more like Internet-favored "Baby Steps". They "go back" to the way thing either used to be or are supposed to be, reflecting a very strong Restoration ethic that you'll find among so-called progressives just as much as you'll find it among the most reactionary Rightists. Everyone, it seems, yearns to return to a Better Time.

Yes. Well.

This is How It's Done -- Kanellos, the Legenday Greek Riot Dog

Or is it Loukanikos?