In previous postings on Barack Bush's Cat Food Commission, I discussed how he created a "deficit commission" to advocate tax cuts for the rich and the corporations they own while cutting government programs for the middle class and the poor. Stopping the wars, raising taxes on the rich/corporations, raising tariffs, and cutting corporate welfare were "oddly" off the table.

Now that Barack Bush's fellow Republicans control the House, he is using that opportunity to go after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This is reprehensible, and it shows the contempt that this administration and its GOP allies have for the non rich.

It's time for some brave Democrat (if such a person even exists in that party anymore) to launch a primary challenge against Barack Bush. Barack Bush has been fucking with the middle class and the poor for far too long.

In the meantime, some progressives are fighting back, I encourage you to join them in doing so.

1) From an Action Alert by Firedog Lake:

The war on our social safety net is now fully underway.

President Obama is offering cuts to Social Security benefits in exchange for GOP support for tax hikes. Democrats in the Senate and Congress will likely be forced to walk the plank and support those cuts, despite being deeply unpopular.

We refuse to sit by and watch the political classes get away with making cuts to Social Security. Firedoglake will make it as painful as possible for any politician from any party to participate in this wholesale looting of the public sphere.

Join us in demanding absolutely NO CUTS to social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Take the pledge:
"I pledge to withhold support for any politician who participates in cutting social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security."

2. Bold Progressives Have Their Own Pledge You Can Sign:

President Obama: If you cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits for me, my family, or families like mine, don't ask for a penny of my money or an hour of my time in 2012. I'm going to focus on electing bold progressive candidates who will fight to protect our Democratic legacy.

Sadly, it's looking as though the only way protect the policies and values the Democratic Party used to stand for these days is to vote Green. The Democrats are just clones of the GOP these days.

3. Contact the White House:
It's no secret that Barack Bush is a plutocrat who hates poor and middle class Americans, but he does need our votes in 2012. It's important to contact the White House and let them know that you are outraged by the fascist policies he is proposing.

 

Andrew Cuomo

If his name sounds familiar, it should. Andrew Cuomo was the corrupt Attorney General who refused to go after the multitude of Wall St. crooks because he was chasing after their big money campaign contributions.

Now, New York's mini me version of Scott Walker has just gotten through a budget with draconian and completely unnecessary cuts to attack public workers, the middle class, and the poor. That piece of walking garbage even pushed through a tax cut for the rich.

Cuomo's sleazy 3/28/10 press release should give you an idea of what he's really about.

"I have said that New York is at a crossroads – one road leading to further dysfunction and decline, the other towards fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. I believe this budget puts us on the right path," Governor Cuomo said. "This budget makes tough choices, which is what you sent me to Albany to do. It closes a $10 billion dollar deficit with no new taxes or borrowing, redesigns government to force it to cut waste and inefficiency, and finally delivers real results for hard-working families across New York State. I applaud and thank Majority Leader Skelos and Speaker Silver for working together to reach this agreement."

Let's look at the facts.

1) The deficit was one entirely manufactured by corruption and easily could have been resolved without cutting the state budget at all. The amount of money handed to back to Wall St. in the stock transfer tax rebate would be more than enough to balance the budget. Nothing epitomizes the pay for play environment in Albany than the stock transfer tax rebate, a Wall St giveaway, and Andrew Cuomo is one of its most strident and uncompromising supporters.

2) Cuomo massively cut taxes for the super rich in order to reward big money campaign contributors.

3) Cuomo's cuts were far from "waste and inefficiency." Cuomo cut HIV/AIDS funding, public K-12 education, funding for public universities, medical care for the poor, foster care, and mental health care among other vital services. Obviously, Cuomo thinks that it is "a waste" anytime anything goes to anyone who isn't a wealthy donor of his. Cuomo is such a spoiled, elitist, classist jackass who will do anything his rich and corporate bankrollers tell him to do.

4) The "real results for hard-working families across New York State" Cuomo is touting are lost jobs, lost services, daughters and sons who cannot afford college, and slower economic growth in the state. The results for his rich contributors will be..........Ka-ching!

No one can seriously claim to be moving "towards fiscal responsibility" while cutting taxes for the rich and continuing a huge, corrupt Wall St. giveaway. A fiscally responsible governor would have raised taxes on the rich considerably, given that tax rates for wealthy parasites have been cut over and over again.

Remember, any time any politician supports a tax cut for the rich or insists on keeping tax breaks for Wall St, that is absolute, irrefutable proof of corruption.

The reality is that Andrew Cuomo is an incredibly evil person with absolutely no personal or public integrity whatsoever. He may pretend to be a centrist Democrat, but he's really an extreme rightist whose real agenda is scarcely different from that of Scott Walker, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, or Karl Rove.

The rest of the Democrats who went along with this inexcusable budget deserve nothing but contempt as well. I don't know how I could ever vote for a New York "Democrat" again after this. The New York "Democrats" are as sleazy and as far to the extreme right as Texas Republicans, when you look at what they do instead of what they say.

 

"Welfare Reform"
"Free Market Reforms"
"Pension Reform"
"Tenure Reform"
"Tax Reform"

What do all of these have in common? All of them are rightist, deceptive, and harmful to society. Most importantly, all are efforts to roll back reforms in the name of "reform."

Let's look at "welfare reform." Welfare was a reform that was put into place to take some of the suffering out of an economic system where there never was enough employment for everyone. Yet, while Bill Clinton reappointed a Federal Reserve Board Chair who used monetary policy to keep unemployment even higher than it otherwise would be under capitalism, he also pushed through a set of cutbacks in welfare payments that served as a punishment for women, children, and for people of color which made them pay the price for this needlessly high unemployment.

Non Western countries had put in place numerous reforms to keep their economies from being completely dominated by their own wealthy elites and by foreign corporations. Rightist US governments, using economic leverage through the World Bank, IMF, and private banks, pushed through policies that significantly reversed the reforms that those governments had put into place, all in the name of "free market reforms."

"Pension reform," often called "Social Security Reform" here in the US, follows a similar pattern. Social Security and pensions are reforms that have done a lot to relieve poverty and misery among the elderly. Wealthy elites have decided they are done tolerating this, since they want all the money and wealth for themselves. So, they looted most private corporate pensions in the late 20th Century. Now, they are trying to loot Social Security and public employee pensions, all in this Orwellian use of the word "reform."

Then, there's tenure reform. Sleazy politicians like Michael Bloomberg and Scott Walker are trying to engage in the same age discrimination that private sector employers use. They private sector has been laying off older workers disproportionately and hiring younger workers disproportionately because older workers' experience has put them in a position where their work is worth more in terms of productivity, giving them higher salary scales. Also, older workers cost more in terms of health insurance. So, what do these sleazebags do? They create phony "budget crises" in order to justify massive age discrimination in the name of "tenure reform." Public school teachers have tenure to keep corrupt practices from determining who gets those jobs. While the original corruption tenure was meant to fight was patronage, tenure is an equally valid reform to prevent massive age discrimination.

Then, there is the right's biggest Orwellian phrase of them all, "tax reform." The graduated tax is the most important economic and political reform in US history. It is based on the fairest view of taxation. Those who are wealthier benefit more from society, so they owe society higher tax rates as compensation. Graduated tax rates also reduce social stratification, and make the upward mobility inherent in the American Dream a possibility outside of the world of fiction. Yet, the phony "tax reform" movement is attacking this reform by trying to cut taxes for the rich and raise them for the middle class and the poor through the flat tax.

Real tax reform would involve getting rid of tax loopholes used by the rich and corporations. It would involve raising the tax rates for the rich and corporations. It also would involve luxury and windfall profits taxes. Yet, the corporate shills and the corporate media never talk about real tax reform. They just want to distort "tax reform" as a spin term to divert more and more of this nation's income and wealth to the rich.

"Reform" sounds great. Real reform is great. However, the way the rightists abuse the word to attack important reforms is truly reprehensible. The middle class and the poor need to take back the word reform and make sure that it is no longer acceptable to attack real reform in the name of "reform."

 

Yesterday, a few thousand New Yorkers participated in a Wisconsin solidarity/pro democracy rally in Manhattan in City Hall Park and on the other side of Broadway. It was part of a collection of protests nationwide aimed at fighting the corporate oligarchs and the corrupt politicians they have bought.

Here's some of a promotional email I received about yesterday's protest from Democrats.com.

This Saturday we're drawing a line in the sand. The entire progressive movement is putting everything we have into one massive display of progressive solidarity nationwide.

We won't let Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker - or any other billionaire-bought TeaParty Governor - break the unions. Unions created America's middle class and if they disappear we'll all end up as corporate slaves.

The entire progressive movement - Netroots, unions, environmentalists, and community groups - will hold solidarity rallies in major cities, including every state capital, this Saturday around noon.

We'll demand an end to the attacks on workers' rights and public services across the country. We'll demand investment to create jobs. And we'll demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share of taxes.

People may not be familiar with Democrats.com. It is not an official arm of the DNC. It is a site of grassroots, liberal Democrats who push the party to the left while opposing the rightist campaigns of the GOP.

There are a couple of things I should mention about the photos that follow:

1. Like it says on more lascivious queer blogs than this one, "click to embiggen."

2. The photos that I took towards the end of the protest didn't turn out at all. I think my cell phone was too low on power at that point. It's a shame because I didn't get shots of some great signs. But, as you can see, I got quite a few pics that did work.

Across America, the far right is working to gut government's ability to protect the most vulnerable among us, while at the same time attacking the middle class. If we let them succeed, our communities will be hit first, and hit the hardest.

Instead of asking the wealthiest of us to contribute their fair share in tough times, these politicans are trying to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, WIC, Americorps, Head Start, and even trying to destroy the right of workers to organize for better workplace conditions — all of which help uplift and protect our communities. And they're doing it while many elected officials in both parties overlook the corporate recklessness that has squeezed budgets across the country in the first place.

MoveOn.org played a major role in organizing and promoting the protests. They certainly deserve credit for that. I've noticed that MoveOn.org is great at mobilizing action when Republicans do horrible things. Yet, when Democrats do horrible things, they usually look the other way. Sometimes they even support horribe rightist policies from Democrats like Harry Reid's efforts to fund the Iraq War during the last two years of the Bush regime and Obama's wealthcare plan for the HMOs, health insurers, and Big Pharma. MoveOn.org promised their members not to support a bill without a strong Public Option and broke that promise when it was time for the actual vote.

In the future, I would really like it if MoveOn.org held Democrats to the same standards as Republicans. Maybe the Democrats wouldn't act like Republicans so often if groups like MoveOn.org were a bit less partisan in their approach.

I also would like to express my appreciation to all the people who showed up to the NYC protest in the cold on such short notice. There are plenty of people in NYC who are more than happy to take stands for social justice if there are opportunities to do so.

 

Photo: doomyeti

This is a wonderful idea!

Stand with Wisconsin workers against the right-wing attack on their rights.

Public employees are teachers, police officers, sanitation workers, firefighters, snow plow drivers ... they are our friends, family and neighbors ... most are not rich, but they work hard and earn their benefits. I oppose attempts by politicians to gut their benefits and take away their rights, all to satisfy a partisan, political agenda.

I stand in support of Wisconsin's public employees, the Wisconsinites across the state protesting on their behalf and the state senators who have left the state in order to prevent Gov. Walker's draconian proposal from passing in the legislature.

Signed,

Please Sign the Petition!

In the eyes of the wealthy and corporate overlords, including the execrable Koch Brothers, every middle class American is a Wisconsin public employee. In other words, they are lowering public employee benefits and taking away basic freedoms from public employees as part of a broader strategy to keep stealing more and more from the middle class and the poor so they can hoard it for themselves.

We need to stop letting politicians in both parties get away with lying about phony "budget crises" that are purely imaginary. Making the rich pay their fair share in taxes would obliterate every state budget deficit and would generate budget surpluses that could be used to create desperately needed jobs and meet important human needs of the non rich.

The vast majority of the money held by the wealthy elites and their corporations really is rightfully ours. It's time that we insist that the politicians that supposedly represent us take it back for us.

 

Scapegoating public employees has become a favorite pastime of corporate media outlets, and Faux News is leading the way. Never mind that states are in fiscal troubles for two reasons:

• - The Great Recession directly resulting from misconduct by corporations and the wealthy.

• - Rich people not paying anywhere near their fair share in taxes.

Of course, Falafel Man cites Rupert Murdoch's wildly unreliable New York Post as his first source. What do you call it when Rupert Murdoch's propagandists start citing each other as sources?

Circular Unreasoning

The horribly corrupt, extreme right government led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to push for more poverty in misery in Egypt even though the people of that country are so understandably outraged by what is being done to them that they are trying to overthrow the corrupt dictator in that country.

I should note that Merkel dishonestly refers to as "economic reforms" in Egypt are things like the following.

1) Selling off state owned industries at fire sale prices to multinational corporations that slash jobs and pay.

2) Cutting back on government food subsidies and other programs for the people.

3) Cutting taxes for the wealthy elites in Egypt while cutting taxes for foreign corporations and speculators. (So much for "austerity.")

4) Giving international banksters absolute power over Egypt's economic policies. (So much for "freedom" and "democracy.")

If you think I'm wrong or exaggerating, remember that Merkel was the banksters' point person in enforcing draconian social spending cuts on Greece and Ireland which easily could have been avoided by making corporations and the rich pay closer to their fair share in taxes.

Now, for her government's latest efforts to spread poverty and misery for the many, and unearned wealth for the few:
(Monsters and Critics 1/28/11)

Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed Friday for reforms in Egypt, saying through a spokesman, Christoph Steegmans, that Egypt suffered from 'a range of deficiencies.'

...

At a government news conference, Merkel spokesman Steegmans was very cautious, saying only that areas where reform was needed in Egypt included economic policy and in policies against poverty.

What are the kinds of policies that the fringe right government in Germany considers "against poverty"? Items 1-4 listed above.

It's not like these policies are new. The kind of plutocratic totalitarianism pushed by the Merkel government, the World Bank, the IMF, and many US and British officials has a known track record. In Central and South America, it has dramatically increased poverty and has employed military coups, suppression of dissent, torture, and mass murder.

The same things have been done in Russia, and to a lesser extent in Poland. The results were predictable: small super rich elites gorging on an orgy of conspicuous consumption while the overwhelming majority of the population suffered so badly they actually were better off economically under communism, as bad as that was economically.

If all of this sounds completely off the radar of what you are familiar with, I urge you to read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

If this reminds you of what has been going on here in the US, it should. The bailouts by Congress and the bankster controlled Federal Reserve of the banksters and brokesters but not the American people basically worked along the same lines. Bush may have pushed the congressional bailout, but Barack Obama voted for it in the Senate.

Imagine if there was no bailout of bad mortgage paper. Imagine instead if that bailout was directed at the people who needed help with their mortgages. Imagine also if the astronomical increases in interest rates for predatory adjustable rate mortgages were cut back dramatically or eliminated by federal law. The effects would have been.

1) Very few foreclosures.

2) A much smaller loss of equity for homeowners.

3) A much shorter recession, one that would have ended by late 2009 if not earlier.

4) Much smaller budget deficits due to much higher tax revenues in a less dysfunctional economy.

5) Much of the value of the mortgage paper would have been saved, indirectly by making it possible for people to pay off mortgages and by preventing the extremes of the collapse in housing prices.

6) Banksters would not be holding so many stolen properties, just waiting to sell them when the economy gets better while getting the federal government to assume the short term risks.

The ability of banksters, brokesters, and wealthy speculators to corrupt governments is hardly limited to Germany. It is highly common, and it includes most US government officials, at the federal, state, and local level. What makes Merkel and her fringe right government stand out so much is just how arrogant and entitled those corrupt politicians are.

It also frightens me to see an extreme right German government in collusion with totalitarian banksters. It reminds me too much of the mid 1930s.

Images: US Government Export Portal

madhavaji

miketually

respres

 

With legislation that should result in finally lifting the military ban, it would be easy to think that Obama is OK, everything is just fine, and that we can relax now, especially if you are queer. However, the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) is more important, in terms of its substantive impact on queer lives, than all of the rest of the queer civil rights legislation that was pending this past legislative term.

ENDA never even got a vote this session.

If that isn't enough perspective, I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy pointed me out to this gem on Obama's "accomplishments":

WhatInTheFuckHasObamaDoneSoFar.com

It's sobering, to say the least.

As promised, here's a fab graphic from Zaius Nation on Obama's betrayal on the tax cuts for the rich/tax increases for the poor legislation Obama just signed. (click to embiggen)

Photo: Joe Futrelle

More Democrats should be speaking out against this heinous tax plan. The Greens deserve credit for sending out the following press release today.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders urged House Democrats to stand firm and do what they can to block President Obama's tax package, calling it a capitulation to the Republican Party that will expand the deficit and undermine Social Security.

"The tax cut is evidence that President Obama isn't compromising with Republicans, he's adopting their agenda," said Howie Hawkins, 2010 Green candidate for Governor of New York and co-chair of the Green Party of New York State. "Greens warned that should the President's tax package pass, Democrats will be the ones initiating the half-century GOP plan to dismantle Social Security. Since the plan extends unemployment benefits by diverting some payroll taxes away from Social Security, it weakens the safety-net for working Americans and defers the financial hit a little bit longer."

Green Party leaders praised Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind.-Vt.) for his eight-and-a-half-hour speech on the Senate floor about the damage that the President's tax package will do to the Social Security trust fund and the safety net for low- and middle-income Americans.

Green leaders said that if either Democrats or Republicans want to reduce the deficit and restore domestic financial stability, they should reduce the military budget and work to end the military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Green Party has repeatedly called for such action, as well as for requiring the rich to pay their fair share in taxes, since tax breaks for the wealthy have contributed even more to the deficits than bloated military funding, as the CBO has repeatedly documented over the last decade.

Read Full Press Release

The Greens aren't just complaining. They are proposing positive solutions to our nation's problems instead of chasing after big campaign contributions and "independent" expenditures.

Why are so few Democrats doing anything worthwhile? I know why the bought politicians aren't. But, why are so many Democratic bloggers, pundits, and party activists going along with Obama's GOP style economic and foreign policy agenda?

It reminds me of how people wildly root for corporate sports teams, based on loyalties mass marketed centered around television viewing areas. So many Democrats at the grassroots level are rooting for "their team" to the point that they have forgotten why they became Democrats in the first place.

 

If you don't like tax cuts for the rich and tax increases for the poor, here's one of your last chances to fight against Barack Bush's tax deal with his fellow Republicans. Firedog Lake Action sent an email asking for help with getting a whip count to find out how many "Democrats" support this travesty. From that email:

The millionaires in the Senate voted yesterday for a bill that will give the richest 2% of the country - including themselves - a huge tax break. But one in three middle class workers could actually see their taxes go UP as a result of the Obama-GOP tax plan.

A vote could happen in the House as soon as tomorrow - we barely have any time to stop this. But here's how I think we can do it.

It's Nancy Pelosi's obligation to refuse to bring major legislation like this up for a vote unless a majority of the Democratic caucus supports the bill, as she already agreed not to do. So we're organizing an EMERGENCY whip count to call Democratic Members of Congress and find out where they stand on the Obama-GOP tax plan.

Can you call Democratic Members of Congress and ask if they support Speaker Pelosi if she proceeds with the Obama-GOP tax plan? It's critical to stopping this $900 billion giveaway to the rich.Click here to start calling in our tax cut whip count:

http://action.firedoglake.com/taxwhip

Please help with the whip count. If you can't call during the day, please leave a message on that Congresscritter's machine asking her or him to vote against this bullshit...in kinder and gentler words of course...or not.

 

I finally got around to listening to last Wednesday's Democracy Now podcast. When I heard this, I was upset, but hardly surprised. (DN 12/8/10)

By contrast, the only group that will see its taxes increase are the nation’s lowest-paid workers. Individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000 stand to see tax hikes because Obama agreed to eliminate his Making Work Pay credit, which provided up to $400 for individuals and $800 for families of low and moderate income.

The tax breaks for the rich were described just before (bolding mine):

A new analysis shows that the wealthiest Americans will receive the most benefit from President Obama’s controversial fiscal deal with Republicans. This week, Obama agreed to extend the Bush-era tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and reduce the estate tax in return for a 13-month extension of jobless benefits and a handful of tax credits for low- and moderate-income Americans. According to the New York Times, at least a quarter of the tax savings under the deal will go to the wealthiest one percent of the population. The plan’s $900 billion cost will be added to the federal deficit, not made up through spending cuts or the closing of loopholes that have taxed capital gains and dividends at just 15 percent.

If not for Democracy Now, I wouldn't even know about the tax increases for the poor, the near poor, and the lower middle class. This should be getting huge press attention, but people with lower incomes don't buy as much crap, and they can't afford to make campaign contributions, much less big ones.

The biased approach to this tax cut deal for the rich/tax increase deal for the poor by the corporate media shows why we need independent media so badly. Politicians can get away with the rankest corruption when most people are kept ignorant.

Photo: madhavaji

 

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is going to be running an ad fighting back against Barack Bush's tax cuts for the rich.

This is exactly what liberals and progressives should be doing. Confronting corrupt politicians, regardless of party, is the only way we are going to restore democracy and freedom to America.

Continuing Bush's tax cuts for the rich is inexcusable. It is typical of what we have experienced from corrupt rightists like Bill Clinton, who cut taxes for the rich himself by cutting capital gains taxes.



Here's the embed code if you want to run this on your blog:
<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4mRRKz9E0m8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4mRRKz9E0m8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

They are raising funds to run this ad.

You also can sign the petition against Barack Bush's tax cuts for the rich.

 

Liberals are understandably pissed at Obama's decision to openly push for tax cuts for the rich after pretending for so long he opposed them. Obama's support for cutting taxes for the rich, taxes that were way too low before his ideological bff George W. Bush took office, proves beyond any possible doubt that the President is as bought and paid for as any other Republican.

Why doesn't he just fess up and change his party registration to GOP?

I tried to call the White House to express my opposition to his latest betrayal, and I got a busy signal twice. Given how pissed off people are at President Obama now, that alone wouldn't be surprising. However, I have called the White House on numerous occasions, and the number always gives a busy signal during the extremely limited business hours, and they don't take messages during the rest of the day. I've called on days when nothing even remotely interesting was going on in the business cycle, and still got busy signals.

Obviously, Barack Obama and his administration don't give a flying rats anus about what middle class and poor Americans think. To these de facto Goppers, only the super rich count.

I wonder if the email comments form even processes peoples'comments, or if the form contents are ignored, and the acknowledgment pops up on the screen without the data being saved or transmitted.

Will some liberal Democrat please, please, please run a primary challenge against this obnoxious and egomanical Phonycrat?

Photo: jurvetson

 

Most of the political commentary in the corporate media on the Cat Food Commision has come from men, which is typically sexist but extra bizarre because the CFC's assault on Social Security would disproportionately affect women.

To understand what the Cat Food Commission is about, it is first instructive to understand The Shock Doctrine, a concept developed by Naomi Klein, one of the most important thinkers of our time. Excepts from the documentary film, "The Shock Doctrine" broadcasted on Democracy Now in 2007, provide a good summary of what this is all about.

NAOMI KLEIN: Remaking people, shocking them into obedience. This is a story about that powerful idea. In the 1950s, it caught the attention of the CIA. The agency funded a series of experiments. Out of them was produced a secret handbook on how to break down prisoners. The key was using shock to reduce adults to a childlike state.

TEXT: The following narration is excerpted from the CIA’s 1963 and 1983 interrogation manuals.

NARRATION: It’s a fundamental hypothesis of this handbook that these are techniques are, in essence, methods of inducing regression of the personality. There is an interval, which may be extremely brief, of suspended animation, a kind of psychological shock or paralysis. Experienced interrogators recognize this effect when it appears and know that at this moment the source is far more open to suggestion, far likelier to comply, than he was just before he experienced the shock.

NAOMI KLEIN: But these techniques don’t only work on individuals; they can work on whole societies: a collective trauma, a war, a coup, a natural disaster, a terrorist attack puts us all into a state of shock. And in the aftermath, like the prisoner in the interrogation chamber, we, too, become childlike, more inclined to follow leaders who claim to protect us.

One person who understood this phenomenon early on was the famous economist of our era, Milton Friedman. Friedman believed in a radical vision of society in which profit and the market drive every aspect of life, from schools to healthcare, even the army. He called for abolishing all trade protections, deregulating all prices and eviscerating government services.

These ideas have always been tremendously unpopular, and understandably so. They cause waves of unemployment, send prices soaring, and make life more precarious for millions. Unable to advance their agenda democratically, Friedman and his disciples were drawn to the power of shock.

NARRATION: The subject should be rudely awakened and immediately blindfolded and handcuffed. When arrested at this time, most subjects experience intense feelings of shock, insecurity and psychological stress. The idea is to prevent the subject from relaxing and recovering from shock.

NAOMI KLEIN: Friedman understood that just as prisoners are softened up for interrogation by the shock of their capture, massive disasters could serve to soften us up for his radical free-market crusade. He advised politicians that immediately after a crisis, they should push through all the painful policies at once, before people could regain their footing. He called this method "economic shock treatment." I call it "the shock doctrine."

Take a second look at the iconic events of our era, and behind many you will find its logic at work. This is the secret history of the free market. It wasn’t born in freedom and democracy; it was born in shock.

An obvious example of this being applied to the US was what has been done to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a city with increased homelessness and displaced people, perfectly livable public housing was torn down a couple of years after the hurricane as the coup de grace of exploitation of tragedy to turn the city over to wealthy and corporate interests.

Another example of the Shock Doctrine political economy is the Cat Food Commission in the US. In this case, a real Great Recession is being used in concert with phony hysteria about Social Security to try to push for a massive redistribution of income and wealth to the rich from everyone else.

Cindy Sheehan's recent blog posting, Savage Austerity, puts the issue in concrete, human terms. The entire posting is well worth reading, but I'll excerpt the part most directly related to the Cat Food Commission here.

I have been worried about Obama’s Bowles-Simpson “Cat Food Commission” (CFC) on reducing the deficit since it was announced, and it turns out my worries were well founded.

Besides suggesting raising the retirement age to an ungodly 69, savage cuts to Social Security and Medicare are proposed. Who needs Social Security and Medicare? Not the elite, but they are not forgotten in the CFC plan, the CFC also proposes to REDUCE taxes on the top earners from an already too low 35%, to an absolutely obscene 23%! Obama is following the international sport of the ruling class of forcing the least advantaged in society to pay for the crimes and excess of the One-Percent Club—those who sit at the top of the economic food chain controlling at least 50 percent of the nation’s wealth.

One thing we must understand, especially in the U.S, is that Capitalism creates these crises to be able to “capitalize” on them. The bubbles of the past were generated for gross profit on the expansion, and economic vampirism on the contraction. We who are not in the One-Percent Club may feel some temporary prosperity on the expansion, but each contraction squeezes us tighter and tighter.

In the CFC, there are also modest cuts proposed to defense, but, if any do go through, (very doubtful) it will just be a symbolic gesture meant to prove to us that the parasites really are “in it” with us.

In the commentary, Ms. Sheehan also shows that she gets it in terms of something that is taboo to discuss in corporate media: the parasitism of the rich.

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host. Well, the Capitalists are definitely a species of creature that benefits at the expense of its host—the workers and our prosperity. The intriguing thing about the parasitic behavior of the One Percent Club, though, is in its very name: One Percent. One percent of the economic parasites in the U.S. are benefiting off of the rest of us.

Here though, it’s almost as if we have invited our parasites to suck the life out of us, and we not only give them our comfy beds, we cook them a delicious breakfast, too, and compose a lovely Thank You note to them to add insult to injury.

Corporate propagandists act like we actually owe the rich for everything, not vice versa. In the upside down world of this propagandistic blather, rich people create jobs rather than the rest of us creating the wealth that the rich exploit. Never mind the fact that the rich in the US are shipping jobs out of the country with ruthless glee.

Why are most male commentators, even outside of the corporate media, afraid to acknowledge this parasitism?

Photos: miketually

D.C.Atty

 

Green Party Candidate for Governor in NY, Howie Hawkins, with supporters

Lame duck Gov. Paterson of my good ole state of New York has made the headlines by laying off 900 state employees during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Paterson, like the political elites in most states, are using imaginary state budget "crises" to justify this attack on the middle class.

The rich in New York, like other states, don't pay anywhere near their fair share in taxes. Raising tax rates on the wealthy to equitable levels would turn deficits to surpluses in every state that has budget shortfalls. New York, also, is neglecting to do its job to fairly tax Wall St. There is this weird gimmick called the "stock transfer tax rebate" which allows the banksters and the brokesters to rip off the rest of us who live here. Repealing that gimmick alone would create a budget surplus.

Unlike the "Democratic" candidate Andrew Cuomo, the Green Party candidate, Howie Hawkins opposes the layoffs. The Green Party of New York State gives us information about Hawkins' views on the subject which are largely censored by corporate media outlets. (bolding mine)

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that when elected he would rescind any layoffs of state workers instituted by Governor Paterson as a threat to the health and safety of state residents..

Paterson agreed last year to a no-layoffs pledge as part of deal for a new, less generous pension tier for state workers. Attorney General Cuomo, running for Governor, said that he would defend Paterson’s effort to break the agreement.

“The state’s fiscal crisis is the result of the handouts to the rich from state lawmakers, including massive tax cuts to the wealthy and the rebate of $16 billion from the stock transfer tax. State workers are not the cause of the state’s fiscal crisis and should not be scapegoated like this. It is bizarre that Governor Paterson seems intent on making layoffs the prime legacy of his flawed administration. It is also bad that Cuomo as Attorney General has put politics ahead of the law in holding that this layoffs aren’t in violation of the memo of understanding agreed to earlier this year not to lay off any state workers in 2010,” Hawkins stated.

If you are unemployed, corporate media are trying to get you to resent government employees who still have jobs. However, laying off government employees hurts people who already are unemployed from the private, instead of helping them. It just puts even more people in the competition for scarce jobs. It's typical of the divide and conquer tactics the wealthy elites use against the rest of us on a variety of issues.

One reason why the Democrats from New York have sold us out so badly is that the Green Party doesn't have ballot access. That means that many Democrats will have no opponents on the left in most campaigns. In the cases where Green Party candidates do jump through the hoops to get on the ballot, the signature gathering process takes most of the time that otherwise would be used to actually campaign. Greens will get ballot access for the next two elections if they get 50,000 votes in this year's governor's race.

Cuomo is guaranteed a victory this time out, due to the self destructive campaign run by his execrable GOP opponent. There is nothing to lose by voting Green in the Governor's race. In fact, voting Green is essential if you want to pressure Cuomo and other New York Democrats to stop acting like Republicans for the next four years.

Please vote for Howie Hawkins for Governor!

 

Meg Whitman is the former CEO of the incredibly evil EBay corporation. She mistreated her maid. She is spending tens of millions of dollars from her personal fortune to try to buy the California Governor's race. But, there is one good thing. Meg Whitman is inspiring some delightful comedy. Enjoy.







Whitman's campaign is an example of why we need to reverse the tax cuts for the rich that have been happening over the years. If she had to pay her fair share in taxes, there wouldn't be enough money left to fun her egomaniacal campaign.

 

This is so typical of the spoiled rich. They think they should be able to buy elections and should be above being questions on the issues.



If the McMahons paid their fair share in taxes, Linda McMahon wouldn't have the bucks to try to buy a Governor's office.

 

As I have pointed out before, Rand Paul might as well have the words "For Sale" tattooed on his forehead. As usual, Paul is taking his panhandling approach to policy to outlandish extremes, this time calling for replacing the Income Tax with a 23 percent sales tax.

From the Louisville Courier Journal 10/12/10:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul said Tuesday the federal tax code is a “disaster,” and he wants to replace the income tax with a 23 percent sales tax on goods and services.

Paul said he supports changing the federal tax code to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service and would vote to repeal the 16th Amendment that created the federal income tax.

“The federal tax code is a disaster no one would come up with if we were starting from scratch,” Paul said in a written statement distributed by an anti-tax group and verified by Paul's campaign. “I support making taxes flatter and simpler. I would vote for the FairTax to get rid of the 16th Amendment, the IRS and a lot of the control the federal government exerts over us.”

This would shift a huge proportion of taxation away from rich people who write Rand Paul enormous campaign checks and towards the middle class and the poor. The lost revenues would result in severe cutbacks or even elimination for public services used by the middle class and the poor including public education, unemployment benefits, public libraries, police, and fire departments.

Teabagger politicians get more and more brazen in paying back their money people every day.

Photo: Rand Paul for U.S. Senate 2010 (released under the Creative Commons license)

When I saw this Murdoch Street Journal column by Peggy Noonan linked on Google News, I knew it would be fab fodder for Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors. He doesn't disappoint. (Distributor Cap did some fun illustrations too, I might add.)

However, when I saw the title of the babblethon, "We Pay Them to Be Rude to Us," I thought it might be fodder for political commentary. Noonan didn't disappoint either. So, I broke my rule about linking to Rupert Murdoch's media empire to dish her crap.

What I find so intriguing about Ms. Noonan's meandering prose in this case is that she complains about things that are the fault of the rightist era brought into place in this country by her idol, the execrable Ronald Reagan.

Once we were a great industrial nation. Now we are a service economy. Which means we are forced to interact with each other, every day, in person and by phone and email. And it's making us all a little mad.

Ronnie was the person who pushed a "free trade" agreement with Mexico that eventually was implemented by fellow rightist, Bill Clinton. Instead of calling for higher tariffs to keep corporations from exporting industry abroad. Ronnie was a cheerleader for deindustrialization. All the rightists who have been in the office have supported corporate controlled trade too. Yet, she doesn't see the connection between the right and our service oriented economy.

Noonan also complains about a letter she got a few years back.

I wrote of the same experience a few years ago and got a letter from a saleswoman in a big department store. She said, I paraphrase: "You misunderstand, it's not that we haven't been taught how to behave, it's that we have. We are trained to make and maintain eye contact, we are taught to intrude, we are instructed to act in a way that people used to recognize as rude behavior."

This is mainly the result of conservative policies. The primary cause is the draining of income from the poor and middle class and the diversion to the rich. That has increased shoplifting, whose prevention is the main goal of all that "friendly" but really watchful behavior by salespeople.

Peggy Noonan later complained about the tightened security in airports that is the result of the right's foreign policies and the efforts to create a terrorized populace at home. Her specific complaints about a screener are loaded with irony, given her position to the political right.

When I'd first gone through the machine and then been manhandled, a month before, I was so taken aback that I blurted "Wow, that was embarrassing." I said it softly, in a way that invited mild commiseration of the "I know, I'm sorry I have to do this" sort. Instead, with full Dead Face, the TSA woman said, "Have a nice day." As I walked away I thought: She has been taught by consultants how to "handle" people like me. Her instructions are that if anyone accepts her ministrations with anything but passive surrender, she is to show she is impervious and keep the line moving. She is probably taught this in a class given by government contractors who are paid by taxpayers to handle taxpayers. Meaning I pay her to be rude to me.

I'll have to number these.

1) Customer service oriented at shutting up consumers and getting them to take it is part and parcel of deregulation that has affected nearly every sector of our economy. Smiling while not giving a flying fuck has become a cultural norm in a society where corporations have way too much power. Why should corporations give a shit when government policy keeps the balance of power in their favor?

2) Contempt for consumers has grown as retail outlets consolidate. Much of the consolidation of that sector and others is illegal under antitrust law. But, conservative administrations refuse to engage in much beyond the most token enforcement of antitrust law. Corporations that don't need to fight for customers have created a situation where The Customer Is Serf, and that too has permeated the culture.

3) The excessive reliance on government contractors is the result of privatization of so much of our government, another rightist policy.

4) The disregard for privacy is one of the most prominent political tenets on the right. Ronnie's opposition to abortion was a prime example of it and set the stage for other violations of privacy. This all has gotten much worse after 911 where the right's politicians were more interested in using the attacks as an excuse to violate the privacy of innocent Americans than to actually improve our nation's defenses against terrorism. Anti regulatory sentiment also has kept regulations from being passed to restrict the voracious appetites of corporations for peoples' private information.

The Upshot

Ms. Noonan is pained by the effects on her person by living in a rightist society. I would be sympathetic towards her if not for how she has been one of the most obnoxious enablers of the very things she rails against. She recognizes that we all want an evacuation slide like the one taken by the heroic Steve Slater. But, she is so beholden to the very system that is making us all wish we could bail out sometimes.

Photo: WexDub

Update: Sean Fenley skewers Noonan for another recent column where she refuses to take responsibility for the rightist policies that are making most Americans justifiably outraged these days.

 

Social Security Works has a great video countering lies about Social Security.



I love how they are actually talking about how wealthy and corporate interests are screwing over the rest of this.

The Cat Food Commission is telling some of the very lies being countered in this video. It's important to get the facts out there now, since the timing of the assault on Social Security and Medicare is set to happen during the lame duck congressional session which takes place when people are busy with the holidays and are disconnected from the news.