Let the Class Warfare Games Begin!

I find it so amusing that GOP politicians are raising the “class warfare” card because President Obama dares to suggest that millionaires should pay their share of taxes. And FOX news talking heads distort the argument by suggesting that small businesses are the victims of this proposal. That’s bull! Any small business owner that nets a taxable profit of more than million dollars isn’t that small! 

Maybe it is class warfare, but it’s been going on for over 80 years.  The GOP has been relentless in their opposition to Social Security and unions the entire time. The GOP just wants to shelter the rich from taxes and Democrats want to protect everybody else. So when the GOP lines up on their side of this battle, they’ll have a half a million to a million people behind them. When the Democrats line up on their side, they’ll have 349 million people behind them.  No contest!

The GOP Solution to Unemployment-Forget About It!

The hard truth is we're addicted to cheap products from China. And that’s where all our jobs went. Decades of productivity improvements also made it possible for companies to produce more goods using less labor.  Big business and government have been relentless in killing off organized labor. Multinational corporations continue to optimize their profits through worldwide labor exploitation, regardless of how people’s lives are affected.

So we’re stuck with too many people. I believe we’re in for a long ride of high unemployment until those people retrain or emigrate to another country for employment opportunity. Unfortunately, most prosperous countries won’t take immigrants- even from the US.

Also, the economy is stalled because people are not buying on credit, much to the chagrin of the banking industry. If we continue to retrench down to an economy based on less debt, unemployment will persist while we wean ourselves off of the greatest ponzzi scheme of all times- artificial growth based on over consumption through debt spending encouraged by the Federal Government, Wall St and the megabanks.

But wait, the GOP has the solution (uh, the final solution?). The GOP would have us return to the good old days. Daylight savings time is coming to an end- so turn your clocks back a hundred years! They would eliminate all taxes, all regulations, and have government just get out of the way. Forget the very sick, the very poor, and the very old people. They will just have to hurry up and die, because the GOP sees them as acceptable collateral damage in exchange for liberty. This was exemplified by the shouts from the Tea Party crowd at the Republican debate last Monday when candidates were asked what to do about a 30 year old sick man without insurance- They shouted, “Let him die!” That’s not a solution. That’s disgusting.

We’re Heading for Armadebton!

We’re heading for Armadebton.  One way out of this mess is to go into default, declare bankruptcy, and then get China to forgive our debt. Just wipe the slate clean and start over. After all, this isn’t real money anyway. It’s only a perceived value. The stock market could crash back to where it belongs… say… around 5000.  Half of the banks would dry up. Middleclass America wouldn’t miss them anyway. 

We could also cut spending drastically by 20 to 30 percent.  But unemployment will push up to 25 to 30 percent. And don’t expect any unemployment checks. You’ll just have to sit on the porch and whittle souvenirs for the rich Chinese tourists. Or people will leave America and seek a new life where opportunities abound in the Old World- or in China, India, Brazil- the new frontiers of economic exploitation.

The only other way out this debt is through massive inflation. If we could just make inflation get bigger- say up to 10 or 15 % annually, then our outstanding debt would shrink like my old mortgage. This is actually a nice by-product of default because our interest rates will skyrocket like a sailor’s payday loan when our bond rating tanks.

There. That was easy.

President Obama Flinches Once Again

The newly created Consumer Protection Bureau was the brainchild of Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren. She is a woman of unequaled credentials to head up the new bureau and she would put teeth in the fight to protect consumers from shady and often confusing banking practices. Ms Warren has been a tireless advocate and spokesperson for consumer rights for many years. 

This bureau came out of the financial reforms in the Dodd-Frank Bill. It’s intended to put safeguards in place to prevent a recurrence of the financial meltdown that occurred in 2008. Among other things, it removes “too big to fail” protections for banks, and is intended to make banks operate at a lower risk level with other people’s money.  The banks don’t want any restrictions and they don’t want the bureau to exist. They’ve vehemently opposed the bill, with unanimous support from their congressional lackeys, the GOP.  The GOP wants to water down the authority of the Bureau and make it something the banks can go along with. Frankly, the best test of the power of the new bureau would be just how much the banks hate it. After all, it’s the banks that are being policed by the new bureau.  If they were happy with it, then we’d know it was useless.

President Obama has obviously had his arm twisted by the banking lobby on Wall St., and smelling a threat of campaign donations, he’s caved into the bank cartel and not appointed Ms Warren to the position she most richly deserves. The GOP has stated unequivocally that they will not approve any person to lead the Consumer Protection Bureau, and they are fighting to modify and water down the role it will play in financial regulation. Given that all appointees will be rejected, why hasn’t the President taken the high ground on this issue? Furthermore, why didn’t he make a recess appointment while Congress was in recess?

What we are witnessing is the hidden power of the banking industry. The President can’t afford the political liability of turning the banking industry against him. So we are witnessing a quiet and scary exercise of Wall St power over the most powerful man in the world, albeit not the most powerful entity in the world.

Osama Bin Laden

I was drifting off to sleep when I heard NPR announce Bin Laden’s demise Sunday night.  I was disturbed that a world would celebrate the taking of a life, yet I understand the reservoir of pent up grief that was released- a huge balloon pricked and no longer able to hold back the tension.  I cried for the victim's friends and relatives, and felt a huge release of tension vicariously as they stood near Ground Zero holding little flags with welt up tears dripping from their cheeks. 

Is justice served?  Are we free to pick and choose when trials are not needed, and when capital punishment can be ordered from the power of a President?  Like all values in life, there are exceptions. Maybe this is one of those exceptions. Hitler was an exception.  Their lives were the trial- witnessed by the world. The punishment was implicitly accepted by the world.

Do I like that we executed an evil man without do process, even though his guilt was self proclaimed? No. Yet it seems appropriate. Are we a morally strong enough to restrict actions like this to only the rarest of evil doers who defy all morality  and inflict death upon  thousands of innocent people? I hope so. 

Day of Rage in Madison Wisconsin

Americans are coming out in unprecedented numbers to protest Governor Walker's  attempt kill the Teacher's Union.  Conservatives want to punish teachers for a recession that was created by Wall St gluttony and insane unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Teachers remain among the lowest paid college educated profession, possibly second only to preachers.

Conservatives are quick to blame union rules for shoddy student performance, yet the facts don't support that claim. CNN reported:  “… conservative governors and mayors want to abolish teachers' right to due process, their seniority, and -- in some states -- their collective bargaining rights. Right-to-work states do not have higher scores than states with strong unions. Actually, the states with the highest performance on national tests are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, and New Hampshire, where teachers belong to unions that bargain collectively for their members”.

America’s teachers are fed up with being under paid and we could be on the verge of a new revolution- a nation wide teacher strike for fair wages- just the opposite effect the anti-unionists are seeking.

If we do get rid of the “bad” teachers, and continue to under pay the good teachers, what can we expect? If the wages for teachers stays low, or even reduced, and benefits are reduced, many people who will end up being hired to replace the “bad” teachers are just more “bad” teachers.  Threatening teachers with the loss of their job based on student performance will not motivate teachers to do their job better. That’s a draconian stick without a carrot.  If the students' performance improves, do the teachers get a bonus or salary increase? No. They just get to keep their job and work with the anxiety of being fired next year.

We seem to lose the perspective of why teachers are given pensions and healthcare in the first place.  Teachers are all under paid. Pensions, health care and job security were benefits provided to teachers for being under paid. Healthcare may have been an affordable alternative to higher pay in the past, but soaring healthcare costs and the large baby boomer bubble of aging teachers is now beginning to break the budgets.  Also, pensions were instituted to offset the lower wages and give teachers a security cushion that governments viewed as a convenient deferred expense- that too, is now coming home to roost.

I’m all for doing away with unions, but only when teachers are paid their true worth- maybe twice their current salary. If a college grad could earn a salary comparable to engineers and other industry professionals, then talented people might be drawn into the teaching profession. Instead of just firing the “bad” teachers, we should be hiring “good” teachers by being competitive with the free market of college grads. Until this happens, the beatings will continue until performance improves, or America’s teachers may have their own national “day of rage”.

President Reagan Would be 100

While the conservatives seem to be canonizing Ronald Reagan on the 100^th year of his birth, all the Reagan worshipers seem to have ignored one of the great statements of Reaganism, including George Bush Junior.

"The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression -- to preserve freedom and peace.” - Ronald Reagan, 1983’

Blogging Through the Gas Mask

Egyptian authorities quickly and neatly shut down all communications in an attempt to disrupt grass roots coordination of demonstrations and protests against President Mubarack.  What the government seems to miss is that frustration and anger with the government has gone way beyond posting one-liners on Facebook. The communication has gone super-personal… face to face… and texting for the moment anyway, is not relevant while you’re throwing rocks at policemen, ducking bullets and running from tear gas clouds.

The very neat and clean shut down of 21^st century communications is just another example of why the people have gone to the streets, and if nothing else, reinforces their resolve for democracy and fuels their anger to seek reforms in the face of real and personal danger to their lives.

We’re witnessing a modern day storming of the Bastille. Our Government is caught mumbling for restraint, calm, and talks with both sides because we’re “all-in” with Mubarack and have been for decades. Egypt receives the second largest amount of foreign aid from the US. And while we like the notion of democracy, we still prefer a dictator who will take our money and do our bidding in the interest of “stability”, rather than allow the people to choose a government that may not be a puppet of our economic empire.

Authoritarian dictators supported by the US rule most of the Arab countries. If they lose control, we lose control. When the chips are down, we’ll choose preserving our economic empire over human rights and liberties of any people. This is only the beginning of what may be a long and ugly moral dilemma for our Government in the Middle East as we struggle to maintain control of the regions oil resources.

Flash- Crazy Man Goes Crazy

I’m as appalled as everyone by the senseless shooting in Tucson, but as much as I’d like to blame it all on Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, that’s a putt too far for me.  Civility has long since left the political lexicon. And yes, we need a return to more civility and more respect for people with opposing views- even radical views, but that's a different issue.  Jared Loughner has a history of untreated mental illness.  He’s a sick person. Sick people do crazy things. How he managed to go through life undetected and untreated is yet another issue for discussion in this tragedy.

But let's be frank. There are a lot of crazy people in the world. Politicians and radio talking heads could be blamed for firing them up, but hey, these people are already pretty fired up and ready to commit atrocities. Like all crimes, they need means, motive and opportunity. Their illness is their motive. It's up to the public to deny them the means (guns, bombs, etc) and opportunity ( such as public gatherings). Blaming the shootings on Sarah Palin is a joke. We should cut the Momma Grizzly a little slack. Her target metaphors are no worse than when President Obama said, “… if you want to win a knife fight, bring a gun…” 

What we really need is an adult conversation about gun control and how we can establish limits on what can be purchased.  The second amendment was written when all rifles were single shot muskets. We don't allow fully automatic rifles. Why can't we have protection  to prevent people from purchasing high capacity 30 bullet magazines for pistols? That’s what’s crazy about this tragedy.  Why should any civilian need to kill something 31 times in self-defense? It's time we limited all large capacity ammo  to law enforcement and the military, period.  


When crazy people do crazy things, they’re not in control of their actions, they're just the delivery agent. The gun is the murderer.  The NRA should stop looking at the world through its rectum and start promoting safer gun laws rather fighting every attempt by Congress to improve gun safety. We can’t eliminate crazy people, but we can make the world a little safer by eliminating crazy guns.

What happens when China starts to behave like America?

Think about it. Everything we do in the international community is done because our interests are at stake. Or we perceive they are. Or we convince the world it’s the right thing to do. Or if we don’t take action, then nobody will.

We were the world's leading power of the 20^th century. Now China is well on its way to replacing us in this century.  Since 2009 China is the largest energy consumer, so what might we expect them to do? Follow in our footsteps?  We could view this push to the backseat as a threat to our world dominance, or we could breath a great big sigh of relief and let China become the world’s whipping post.  We might need to suck up our pride to in order to sit comfortably as number 2, but life could become so much simpler. We could live in the shadow of China, and be more like, you know—Canada, UK and Australia.  We might have to change our national bird to the Turkey- something more conciliatory than a predator. This would make Ben Franklin very happy. And of course China could become the majority financier of the UN and have the privilege of hosting the UN in their country. 

I can’t wait until the next world crisis comes along and Chinese President Hu Jintao says, “Bring it on”. Can’t you just see him landing on an aircraft carrier with a huge banner (electronic no doubt) that says, “Mission Accomplished”?  Then maybe we can go off quietly and fund domestic things like health care, infrastructure and education. Someday we might even be manufacturing goods that are exported to China and sold at the Beijing Walmarts.  Yep, that would be the life.