There is a big club and you ain’t in it.

In 1066 an event referred to as the Norman Conquest occurred in Europe. When it was over the victors decided to count the spoils resulting in the a document, Doomsday Book. Finished in 1085 it revealed the 1% fact. 1% of the population owned just about everything. There have been lots of attempts at redistribution of that wealth since then but in the end a thousand years later the 1% still own as much as the rest of us put together.

In an effort to get back to levels of the feudal days the plutocrats have decided we need to attack the New_Deal safety net programs that made life tolerable for those serfs tenacious enough to live to old age.

Previous presidents had done much to improve the lot of the "least of society“,Lincoln freed the slaves, Roosevelt broke the trusts, Wilson promised pensions to the vets of WWI. Generally these attempts were clawed back, Jim Crow,The gilded age, The unleashing of troops on the Bonus Army. Social security was the first to stick and was improved over the course of the next seventy years. Medical care was added and the system was expanded to include more workers and improved disability insurance. Unemployment insurance, cobra health insurance and food stamp programs also came along to protect the populace from the creative destruction of capitalism.

The success of these programs was on display when the latest bubble burst in housing and the great recession of 2007 came along. We had a contraction along the lines of the great depression but we didn’t get the horrible bread lines and displaced populations because we had these programs in place. Little comfort to the folks that lost their jobs and homes but better than the, “brother can you spare a dime”days of the 1930’s.



For some reason after the government bailout of the rich with TARP and trillions of dollars lent at zero interest by the Federal reserve worked to save the investment economy the 1% have decided it is time to destroy the folks at the bottom to avoid picking up the tab.

Enter the worst president in my lifetime and the “Shock Doctrine”. The debt ceiling, a nonsensical and possibly unconstitutional law, (See the 14th amendment)is being used to create an artificial crisis to justify cutting programs for the poor. A deficit that can be traced to illegal wars and huge tax cuts for the 1% will be balanced on the backs of the old, the poor and the disabled veterans.

We do not have a spending problem at the moment we have a revenue problem. It can be short term or we can make it permanent that is the decision we are about to make. Tax rates are at historic lows. Social Security Never contributed a dime to the deficit until the “Fierce Advocate” thought just one more tax cut and the confidence fairy will save us all. They already cut benefits with the last change in COLA this one will lower the standard of living for those at the bottom of the scale. There is no reason to capitulate on entitlements now. These programs are stable for at least a decade so the president can burn the village to save the village after the election if he thinks it is that important to make more elderly poor. Although with higher then 8% unemployment and having threatened the life of old people I think his re-election is now in serious doubt for the first time. If the economists that I tend to believe are correct this austerity fetish will probably result in another down turn and then even batshit crazywill beat him.

Rather then continue to increase poverty, 25% of the population at the moment, we need a different plan. No more failed Laffer curve discredited bullshit tax cuts as stimulus. Lower the retirement age to create jobs. Lower the cost of Medicare by lowering the age and expanding the pool with some people that consume a little less will extend the program life. Make the subsidy a sliding scale for Medicare if you need the elderly to pay more, raise the price for the richest. When unemployment has dropped to 4% or below then we can address cutting no defense discretionary spending. End all foreign wars and close 20% of overseas facilities immediately.

Clown or criminal that is the question?

My level of dissatisfaction with the executive branch of the current government is no secret. Once the O man signed on to the Bush war crimes I could never in good conscience vote for him again. That leaves me with a minor problem. I will vote for the inevitable obscure democrat that may make it to the primary ballot or try to pump up the Greens in June. The problem lies in the general as the alternative party has the batshit crazy competing with the pure evil.
The campaign fund raising season has already arrived and the Far right are speaking to the hicks in Iowa. I actually know some folks that live in that state and they are nice enough. I just want to live in an actual free society one day governed by the rule of law and elected democratically. I know that is a delusion but we are closer than 60 years ago so continuing to work in that direction is not completely insane. George was right about the scraps that we get to fight over are just that, but they are also the difference between crappy jobs and serfdom.
The god squad is dangerous to the health of society. Obama doubling the money for the faith clowns is another in a long list of poor policy decisions. That is nothing compared to the kind of crazy that eye of Newt is selling. As an adulterous piece of trash his only hope to get around the rubes is to go all super christy I have sinned but I believe in the forgiveness of Jebus. He may be a true believer, they shit all over everyone they can and then pray when they get caught. As they follow the one true god they are chosen and since the novel they follow is so archaic and poorly written they can twist pretty much any kind of bullshit they choose to out of it. Either way he is now pushing some new version of manifest destiny and the founding fathers were all about the god nonsense. That and only the religious and only a those that follow “true religion”, can be real Americans. It works on the lizard brains of the masses they say.
The next group of dingbats vying for the Rethug mantle are the get rich running folks. Sarah Palin, Mike Huckleberry and Mitt Romney. All are running for the next reality show and to get rich. Michele Bachman is another member of this crowd but her actual position as an elected official limits her earning power if not her psychotic ravings.
The BP disaster seems to have cooled out Jindal from the bayou. There are some other governors in the running Pawlenty or Kasich and Barbour but they have no charisma and thus no shot.
In conclusion we can be ruled by the know nothings or sell out scum. Not a very appealing choice.

In the case of Ellsberg and Asange I see the need for exposing secrets of governments. It is never in the interest of the democratic electorate for the government to lie to the populace. They serve the public good by exposing those deceits. I do not see how the publishing of private medical records serves any public good. If you are doing this as an attempt to be a cool anarchist type you suck even more. Fuck with the corporations all you want but don’t pick on the vulnerable in society to demonstrate your awesome cleverness.

“This has all happened before”

We are coming the penultimate moment of the health care reform battle. We are given the false choice between no bill and a very bad bill and the ides of March are some mystical deadline. Why the President even delayed his vacation and disappointed his little kiddies to make it happen.
“This has all happened before”, a cheesy line from a Sci-Fi series sets the scene. In the first years of the Clinton presidency the health care reform bill cobble together by one bribe after another failed to pass. It was at that moment that the right wing had succeeded. They had claimed the Clinton presidency was illegitimate from the jump. Right wing radio was calling it America held hostage and started a countdown reminiscent of “Night Line” and the Iranian hostage situation. It had worked for the right to take power before. Now that they had defeated his signature agenda item they claimed that the people were on their side and Clinton turned so hard right that he signed into law the repeal of the banking regulations that had protected us since the depression. While Clinton did slow defense expansion he took an axe to social spending and sucked up to the corporations as hard as Monica was sucking him.
In 2008 the same whack jobs took to the streets and demanded to see the presidents birth certificate. When Bush was appointed by the supreme court that his party had stacked not a peep from these warriors for freedom but a black man elected by an overwhelming majority, he can’t run my country. Then came the screams of socialism as the bailout for the banks outraged the formerly employed populations. Quick factual note, The financial rescue was passed under W. revisionist history not withstanding Obama did not stop the great depression 2.0, it happened under the Democratic congress. Nancy, and Harry saved the world, not Barry. It was George signed the Tarp bill.
The hated Ralph Nader has proven right again, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” or was that Pete. Maters not the facts speak for themselves. The president who now flat out lies without even trying to be subtle about it claims that everything he said in the campaign was just a mirage. He never wanted the public option. Here is a mash up of his campaign videos talking about the public option. He thinks we are so stupid that we will not remember what he said. He used this before on his FISA vote. Just pretend it didn’t happen and move forward. Evidently most of us are.
The conservatives have already won. The health care reform act or whatever other bullshit name they will call it in the end will do nothing to reform health care. The devil is in the details and the details are all in favor of the corporations. There is no lifetime cap, it is replaced with a yearly cap. It trades no exemptions for preexisting conditions for a mandate to buy insurance from a private company. This will not pass the legal challenges in my opinion. This is the one thing that the right is right about. You can’t make a citizen give his money directly to the corporation. The government has to be the middle man in the form of taxation. The car insurance argument is a straw man as I can opt out. I do not have to own a car so I am not forced to buy the product. If it does get through the courts the rich get staggeringly richer. When the bill goes up in flames they get the status quo. Either way the cost of health care is not contained. They gave away all the cost cutting measures before the negotiations even started in backroom deals with corporations. No importing of drugs from overseas and no Medicare negotiating for lower drug prices. No single payer, no public option so no price controls on insurance rates.
The remaining question is will the Democratic leadership fail by passing a bad bill or by not being able to pass any bill. Regardless of the outcome the media corporations will sell the corporate line and for those of us outside the 1% life will get worse as we continue to aggregate all the wealth at the top. If you want to see how our grandchildren will live and work look not to Europe but to China. The modern incarnation of the capitalist state.