It's a cynical political strategy almost beyond belief, but it's becoming obvious that President Obama and the Democratic leaders plan to let the Republicans do what they've tried to do since the days of FDR: Cut Social Security.
Members of President Obama's deficit commission huddled behind closed doors Wednesday despite pleas from the left and right that they hold all their meetings in public.
The move only heightens suspicion that rather than forging a national consensus on future spending priorities, the commission's work will consist of backroom dealings in which members of the Washington aristocracy find high-minded excuses for cutting the social safety net.
[...] Reed said the "actual deliberations are going to be in public, at the full commission meetings."
Uh huh. Right. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
When I wrote about this last week, some readers insisted it would "never" happen, and questioned whether there was any logical reason Obama would support benefit cuts. So I talked to a couple of D.C. Social Security activists this week and posed that very question. I was told that Obama's reelection strategy was based on allowing Social Security cuts to win over independent voters. (Apparently it polls well with the Tea Party crowd.)
Now, in case you haven't been following this, the Catfood Commission bypasses Congressional line-item input (this alone should be enough to make you worry) and will get an up or down vote in December -- after the elections. So a lame-duck Congress (where some members may be looking for lucrative new jobs) will have to vote on it.
Now, seriously. How can any intelligent person convince themselves that the Obama administration isn't backing this? The commission is stacked with deficit hawks; the national deficit is on track to be more fiscally sound if they let the Bush tax cuts expire; and Social Security, which is a tax-transfer program, doesn't have a damned thing to do with the deficit.
But deficit hawks aren't grounded in reality. They just like inflicting pain on the people who didn't cause our economic crisis.
Ted Marmor, a professor emeritus of public policy and management at Yale writes:
It is crucial to understand how devious such arguments are. They are ideological stances searching for plausible occasions to celebrate what they presume. This ploy is obvious in the case of Social Security pensions, which are not suffering worrisome fiscal imbalances now or later.
The deficit hawks say they are worried about future years - 2037 or 2042 - when there might be some shortfall in Social Security revenues against claims, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But why are they focusing on future decades when the near-term federal deficit is the problem?
Duh! Because the "think about the grandchildren!" line makes it easier to sell!
Now, I suspect Obama also wants to use the Social Security cuts to force Republicans to accept some kind of tax increases -- because it's just so typical of how he operates. "I'll give away economic security for our base if you'll agree to upset your base by accepting new taxes."
This is absolutely the wrong approach. This is the proverbial downward slope. Void the Social Security contract, and it's the beginning of the end for what tattered pieces of the safety net ordinary working people still have.
You want to cut the deficit, Mr. President? It's the war, stupid.
(protect what?)
The "social security fund" that some of us think is there and thusly needs "protecting"...
..is just a big portfolio of collateralized debt obligations and derivatives anyway.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
packaged up and sold enough swindles to unwind 2500 years of western civilization.
I KNEW IT!
I'm a lot like Ricky Gervais and the Golden Globes: Why?
although obama did have some encouraging words about avoiding austerity measures for the US economy (something that has historically only been forced on other nations), i fear that he will fold like a cheap suit on this issue--as is his MO.
and so many americans will hop on the deficit issue, agree to screw themselves over, and ignore those that laugh all the way to the bank.
as dean baker asks: why should we listen to deficit hawks?
he *formed* this commission one year ago with the clear intention of cutting SS and Medicare - a heresy for a Democrat(by now it should be clear Obama is a corporatist /opportunist). And the manner he's doing it is almost as creepy - very secretive and undemocratic, bypassing an elected, Democratic Congress to appoint a "bipartisan" commission stacked with rightwing creeps and Blue Dogs, with neither of the co-chairs fans of SS, who will make their recommendations *after* the midterms elections and 2 years before the presidential election so voters won't have a say in the matter.
And why do SS and Medicare *have* to be cut?? To pay for the banksters' bailout - basically, the meager "entitlements" of the elderly and disabled will be used to fund the lavish lifestyle of those who brought down the economy, sent 10% of Americans to the unemployment line and millions out of their homes.
The CRFB.ORG is Obama's creation. It has been stacked with NeoCon and NeoLiberal deficit hawks who will give Obama political cover when the committee's recommendations are adopted "in the name of bipartisan consensus".
But one need only look at the self-imposed limitations within the CRFB.ORG "budget simulator" to notice that many, many alternative budget "enhancers", such as slashing military spending, moving back to a more progressive income tax structure such as existed under Eisenhower, an immediate roll-back in the Bush tax cuts, or exiting Afghanistan and Iraq immediately are not "on the table" for discussion.
[ http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/# ]
In fact, the subject is broached within the budget simulator for extending a sizable USA military presence in both Afghanistan AND Iraq to 2013, 2015, or beyond. It is plain to surmise, from how the budget items are portrayed, that it will be the "Greek" budgetary solution that will be adopted by Obama.
Save our military adventurism and the MIC, save the TBTF Wall Street Mobsters, save the blank checks written to Big Oil, Big Agra, and Big Pharma, and hang the budget short-falls on the pee-ons. This should come as no surprise -- just look who Obama selected for his Chief of Staff and his coterie of top industry advisors ...
8^(
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Did you bother to actually read the "about" link on the website you linked?
The CRFB.org is most definitely NOT Obama's "creation".
Unless Obama is a time traveler, in addition to being a socialist Muslim.
As Obama campaigned, he wasn't going to appoint presidential commissions, and then after he was elected, he created plenty of them. He also announced on 18 February 2010, he was establishing his budget commission. I didn't catch the name, but the CRFB is the only one that's been in the news - I thought they were the same ...
I will stand by my argument, however, that he will use the "bipartisan" findings and recommendations of his commission to gain political cover for the 2010, 2012, and beyond elections. And that the cuts will come primarily from social programs that effect only the Middle Class and Poor, just like in Greece. Just look at Obama's "inner circle" and tell me that isn't what's coming down the pike at us ...
[ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/02/o... ]
[ http://imarketnews.com/node/9001 ]
[ http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statement... ]
Try running the budget simulation for yourself, and see what you find out ...
Denial isn't just a river in Egypt ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Read this: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2F...
Boehner had praise, however, for Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan and stepped-up drone attacks in Pakistan. He declined to list any benchmarks he has for measuring progress in the nine-year war, at a time of increasing violence and Obama’s replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus.
Ensuring there’s enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country’s entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he’d favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.
Read THIS: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/...
Obama and the Democrats have been living a lie. That lie is that they are the party of FDR and LBJ, a party that represents the working man and woman of America.
When Obama picked the two banking and Wall Street apologists Geithner and Summers and turned them into powerful Wall Street enablers I knew those days were over and that Obama was a fucking fraud.
This commisssion is more proof of that for the Obama apologists, although they won't or can't believe it.
it's Hope The Dopes.
And the Dopes are we who voted for Hope and Change. Time to wake up and start finding another candidate NOW.
civil unrest and strife. That would be a straw that breaks the camel's back kind of act. Bush's third term.
I used to snicker when I heard talk of armed rebellion. Americans have too much to lose to fight for what they believe.
But take it all away... leave people with nothing to lose, and the oligarchs will face a nasty future.
indifferent to the needs and well-being of the People, it narrows the options for positive change. The longer they persist, the fewer options that remain. The only time Obama and crew seem interested in serving the People who elected him is when the People's needs and well-being do not come into conflict with the interests of plutocrats/oligarchs or when those needs do not conflict with the relentless expension and consolidation of a police state. They are relentlessly putting people into the nothing left to lose class. Apparently, they believe they can do this without consequence.
Obama apparently thinks that we're stupid and that all he needs to pacify us is to keep the propaganda and fear machine cranked up. Just look at some of comments on this site to see what I'm referring to - the old Kucinich and Nader boogiemen are supposed to scare us into submission!! What a fascist farce the Democratic Party has become!
...threatening with arrest and a $40,000 fine anyone (ie. reporters) who comes with 65 feet of Gulf spill, boom, and clean-up areas!! What Obama "believes" in is being re-elected, and if it means suppressing freedom of the press, preventing local clean-up crews from doing their work, and freedom of movement for the little people, so be it! Above all else, he must keep the cult of personality going, and pictures of oil-soaked birds won't help in that endeavor.
The GOP doesn't need to win. They already have. Corporate America in all its glory. I wonder what out new flag will look like? Photoshop anyone?
at the U.S. flag in Idiocracy - that about sums it up. (brought to you by Karl's Jr.)
A corporate logo will replace each star. These logos will be icons that represent the most elite aristocratic houses of the new neo-feudal state.
The red stripes will be changed to faded black in order to represent the black and white stripes of a prison uniform, in honor of the police state. The prison motif will serve as a constant reminder that those who once were citizens but are now subjects that they are expected to know and remain in their places...or else.
The blue field behind the corporate logos will be changed to red, to celebrate all the blood of innocents that must continually be spilled to support a state that is predatorily imperial, fascist and totalitarian.
Instead of red, white and blue, it will be the red, white and black, the traditional symbolic colors of totalitarian fascism.
The flag will be edged with a black fringe, to symbolize and celebrate the despoilation of the earth in pursuit of a system that benefits only the very, very few.
That should do it.
the logo/star field will be super-imposed over crossed rifles to show that we have always been at war with Iraqistan.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
Probably half of them have spent multiple tours going around neighborhoods at night, kicking in doors and turning homes and lives upside down.
This is not a good skill to turn loose during a politically crafted and engineered National economic "emergency".
Now that would be interesting. The wingnuts' heads over at FOX would explode because they would be forced to attack and deride the very veterans they have claimed to support.
What would the government do? Send in Petraeus to the Washington mall and start shooting?
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
That is what Blackwater is for. No constitutional restraints on using private armies within the country. See how that works?
Then we have the excuse to wipe them out. It's Blackwater huntin' season kids!
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
to this country to restore order, will they be one of the foreign armies that the Oathkeepers will not assist? Huh?
Considering how I got slammed recently on another C&L thread about liberals and gun ownership.
I guess we could all go out and protest in the streets, and show our disdain for the Powers-that-Be by pelting their Pretorian Guard with rotten vegetables ... no doubt that will end well ...
8^(
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
have your own gun, maybe I will loan you one of mine. Not all of us are unarmed.
... who are they going to cast to play the role of MacArthur?
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
*
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
>
The right wing supports the cannon-fodder du jour but only has a use for dead veterans.
they'll leave us with just enough to keep people dumbed down and content.
But God I hope they go extreme so they can experience extreme backlash.
militarisation of police forces across the US over the past couple of decades?
me-oww!
a full combat brigade .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
It's obvious the elites are slowly buying insurance against the mob when it finally realizes no legal options for change are left.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
The Northern command was remissioned for domestic combat operations. Wouldn't matter if they remissioned the entire armed forces for combat against the People of the United States, because at least 50% of active duty and reserves would refuse to wage war on their own countrymen, many of those would probably desert with their equipment, there would be mutiny in the ranks, and importantly...there are more combat veterans than there are active duty, most of whom would probably not sit idly by while their families and neighbors were attacked, oppressed or repressed.
I'm sure there are contingency plans in depth to subdue the populace. In the end, it will do no good; they are grossly outnumbered and outgunned. Things would rapidly devolve into civil war/second revolution. I see two pictures in my mind's eye: Boris Yeltsin standing on the top of a tank, from the armored brigade that was assigned to crush protestors. They had desserted with their equipment. The other is all the pictures /films of gutted and burned out Iraqi police stations that were over run by Iraqi citizens who had come to the conclusion that the police were their enemies or working for the enemies of the Iraqi people/state. It wouldn't be any different.
Because I see the most sophisticated, effective propaganda machine in world history attacking the American populace daily. It's working.
Too many people, especially military types, believe the bullshit. A civil war is likely, a significant part of the of the military may fight for the fascists.
It could be something akin to Spain, 1936.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
but - in the example of the Spanish fascists - the fascists would not have prevailed without help from the nazi wermacht. What external power is going to come to the aid of despotic plutocrats in numbers to make a difference? Nobody. I would bet that the propaganda tends to lose effectiveness, even with the 25 percenters, when the power the the propagandists represent is deployed against the people who are targeted for manipulation by the propaganda. The point, I guess, is that there is a line that once crossed turns everybody into losers and is frought with unintended consequences.
as we've seen at the toronto g20 (and all previous g8-g20s), the plutocrats have a very effective way to deal with the people. and we saw the general reaction to "police" brutality--a collective yawn. the govt-corp, and their willing media pawns, have perfected soft-fascism, and the majority of people are willing to believe whatever TV tells them.
and, as has been reported, mercenary outfits like xe/blackwater have been recruiting from 3rd world countries in order to get cheaper for-hire-thugs.
couple the two together and i don't think our overlords are particularly worried (yet) about a challenge to their power, nor about projecting force to those that don't bow deep enough.
Unarmed protesters probably isn't a good indicator of the effectiveness of mercenaries.
but i would wager that the mercs would LUV it if protesters were armed.
Nisour Square. Those people were not even protesters. They were ordinary civilians trying to go about their business.
but, in the eyes of the nissour square murderers those weren't "people" they were shooting--subhumans make their trigger fingers itch all the more.
Krauts, Japs, Gooks, Sand Ni**ers, Hajis....
Sub-human creatures to be exterminated, right?
War always has at least a tinge of racism to it.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
I am very possibly biased. I'm a former Marine and not a fan of the Mercenaries. But I do seriously doubt that mercenaries want to fight armed protesters.
A mercenary fighting for money/adrenaline rush/whatever isn't as motivated a somebody fighting for their life or way of life.
here's to hoping that you're right... b/c i fear we'll find out soon enough
These guys are willing to kill for money, but I wonder how willing they are to die for money. My bet is not very, once it's their turn to do the dying.
I think that their outlook would change if they were to go up against any of the millions of combat veterans. From what I hear, most active duty guys would jump at the chance to have a go at the mercanaries.
I mean it.
And, because the relevant authorities did not accept, "OOPS," as an appropriate excuse from Erik Prince on behalf of his company, he is now taking his ball and going home. He puts it up for sale and is going to move to the UAE. Right. Like he'd really give up his cash cow. One thing I know about rich people, they NEVER have enough money. Who does he think he's kidding? If there was any justice left in this country, he would be sitting in jail without bail. right now.
I would designate Xe a terrorist organization and wipe them out. These monsters are now clearly a security threat to everyone.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
those who create them have a good chance that they will end up having to fight them before it's over. The only reason the neocons created Blackwater was to do everything possible to side step the laws of the land. They wanted an army of thugs who existed outside of any process of accountability. Blackwater is the result, and in that regard, they are no different than the brownshirts of the nazi SA.
Toronto, Monday June 28 Innocent people are still in jail.
Naomi Klein to police: "Don't play public relations, do your goddamned job!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkQK9uP8ok0
Foreign Fascists were key to Franco's victory. I guess the power of propaganda can be hurt once the state decides to attack it's own people. By 1945, nobody sane left in the Axis believed Hitler and Mussolini's bullshit anymore. Not the Wehrmacht, not the police, not the people, only a few hardcore SS types remained.
You have a point. However, I look at the fracturing of this country politically and in the media, that I can't help but feel that we have an unresolved, fundamental disagreement in the population over the direction of the country.
The Right may not win in the end, but the possibility of Right-wing militia death squads coming to my house isn't just a paranoid thought.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
The government/military that brought us "We will be greeted as liberators" is incapable of dealer with an insurgency in a country a fraction of the size. The military is like a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail.
There is a problem, namely tea-baggers. They respond to authoritarian rule.
given apparently lawful orders, and the lives and well-being of their families hang in the balance. I cannot hope that they would subject their loved ones to starvation and deprivation to score some patriotic "feel good" brownie points ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
..now the party on the right.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Medicare is a good idea? Besides idiots, I mean? Only those who think they are secure in the idea that they will always have enough money to be satisfied with themselves. Grover Norquist seems to be getting his way. Shrink the government until it can be drowned in a bath tub? Attacking the elderly and all those members of society who are weak? Not a good move from a military perspective, and arrogance will be your downfall, I predict. There is no one without weakness.
Baby Boomers may not have the chance to respond to the catfood commission this year if they try to ream us on the Social Security "reforms," but they won't forget come 2012 if the full benefits are put off until age 70, which is one of the pissy ideas I hear being proposed.
Obama is worried about 2037? Get your head out of your ass and start worrying about 2010--a 10 percent unemployment figure (WAY low because of all the part timers and the people who dropped out of the employment pool) a stagnant economy, two endless and unpopular wars, a bloated Department of War budget, oil spills in the Gulf (after a disastrously timed, idiotic presidential green light to the "drill, baby, drill" fools). Every time Obama has followed his corporate owners' advice, it has been a catastrophe. It looks like he may do it again. What a tool!
Candideinnc
Guantanamo Bay, rendition, hebeas corpus, and internal spying. Add this to contracting state budgets, reduced police and fire protection, continuing inceases in medical care, higher education costs, less high quality public education, continued infrastructure deterioration, less congressional support for the middle and lower classes and the possibility of an extended depression approaches.
They announced this "Deficit Commission" a year ago, IIRC-- and it was immediately obvious what it was going to be. Obama is several big paces to the right of Richard Nixon in every meaningful way. It's pathetic.
So are they calling for an end to Afghanistan, Iraq and the pending Iran?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
from Iraq and Afghanistan, but like Rep. Alan Grayson are solidly behind Israel and against Iran.
I'm afraid it's the old switch-e-roo -- the troops will remain in the Middle East. They will be diverted to the new-and-improved optional preemptive conflict in Iran instead. I know, I know. It sounds like it's straight out of the PNAC playbook. But Isn't that a change you can believe in?
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
greatest con man ever to enter politics, or the biggest bait and switch in political history was just pulled off on the American people.
These "inconvenient truths" are very depressing.
when he named his economic dream-team in the run-up to 08 it was pretty evident just what type of president he would be if elected. i don't find any of this surprising. depressing, yes; surprising, no.
this is, afterall, the "new democratic" party
"There's no left America, no right America, there's the United States of America"
I seem to recall Edith Keeler had a similar message. At the wrong time...
"Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you."
Selecting what part of a bull's fece is the least stinky is not the best way to approach proper dietary options.
He did not bait and switch on anybody. He was vague and people were desperate to project their expectations on a person who was for all intents and purposes a blank canvas. Technically, that is not lying... it is great marketing.
He voted for FISA, did he not? He voted to extend the PATRIOT act, right? He said Reagan was one of his fave presidents. It is not like he was sending mixed signals, what were some of you expecting? That he would campaign as a center-right politician, and then take a turn to the left once in office which is when he would have absolutely no incentive to do so?
I am not that disappointed in Obama since he is exactly what I voted for: a less bad alternative.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTjKWq9Gges&fe...
.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
He spoke out of both sides of his mouth, one for the sucker average American who was sick of the Bush era and desperately wanted change, and the other side for the corporations, for whom he intended to continue and build on Bush policies.
Obama is a con artist and narcissist. I had to admit it but I think the Republicans who were calling him that before the election had it right. See these articles for example; if you can look past their conservative aspects, they're actually quite insightful about Obama -
http://sharprightturn.wordpress.com/2008/10/2...
http://www.faithfreedom.org/obama.html
You mean like the decider?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
A lot of that sounds like my Dad.
far left loon >.<
If you watched his campaign speeches, he was a compassionate conservative who thought nation-building was wrong. He was going to "restore honor" to the presidency. Most idiots believed it.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
The OAPs and disabled, duking it out with the strapping young poor over scraps from dumpsters. And the illegal occupations wage on.
Hope? Dopes.
me-oww!
transparency at the pleasure of the president?
nice!
we are going to change " who " does business in Washington and I hope it is Me .
BHO
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
and right on point.
It is going to take a big deal of effort for some people to spin this one out, but I am sure they will rise to the occasion!
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I've been buggin' the fundies in the DMN blogsite.
On a thread about abortion I asked, "For those who believe in Original Sin, if life begins at conception, and the baby is miscarried, so understandably is never sprinkled by a priest, does that mean the baby is going to burn in hell forever?"
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
scientists assume that about 50% of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion, the 'will of god'.
my take on this sir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvF1Q3UidWM
"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." - Hunter S. Thompson
Throw that big ol' match onto the pile of dry tinder comprised of the under-employed, frustrated, stressed out common folk who were counting on someone to help us repair our nation after the fiasco of Bushco. I just wonder how long these pols will last when we descend en masse on DC and brave the tasers of the militarized police.
If they think we're too fat, slovenly, lazy, depressed, stupid, disinterested, or delusional to revolt, they've got another thing coming.
Is it time to open up that ginormous can of whoopass yet?!?
DC politicians? I think it can. Are liberals and progressives the only ones who realize what is going on? This is going to get quite interesting.
to grill and Jet-skis to commit suicide on, the public is usually having too much fun to pay attention to anything. Maybe this is how come summertime is also when lots of bad shit happens, or gets ready to happen. The guns of August... blitzkrieg... 9-11... the death of Lehman Brothers....
the riots of the 60's. Injustice creates powder kegs aplenty, greed, arrogance, hubris supplies the match.
I sincerely doubt enough people will wake up to the truth before it's too late.
This has been knowledge for about a year now, but hardly anyone wanted to talk about it.
theorist. Or worse. I call them deniers.
You need to keep up with the talking points. The GOP says all that about "lunatic conspiracy theories." Our more benevolent and friendly Dem reps prefer the term "unrealistic." It is shorter and more polite with all the condescension intact.
The GOP prefers to squash criticism by pretending those asking questions are crazy. While Dems prefer to derail debate by pretending any criticism of their policies as being childish, petulant, and unrealistic.
There are plenty of examples of both cases in this site and the media.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I sincerely doubt that We the People are going to tolerate much more of this oppression and the radical income inequity crammed down our collective throats by a minute fraction of our world's population.
.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Two hundred years is NOT a significant span of time, ixnay, considering that we humans have been at this for thousands of years. Furthermore, if we continue to use the fisheye lens of "American," we lose sight of the global dimensions of this stultifying radical income inequity.
What's more relevant in the greater scheme of things is our species' transition to exponential change. I used the tinder metaphor herein above for a specific reason: the hoi polloi is like a powder keg, primed to go off. No one can predict when and where the ingiter will be applied. I continue to hope that we Americans will get a clue, and work for the greater good of all humankind.
Please, bear in mind that less the 400 people worldwide own and control better than 45% of this planet's resources. Economic anthropology provides myriad examples of our species' devotion to economic behaviors that tend to concentrate wealth in the hands of a very few. Of late, we humans have made our economic behaviors a pseudo-religion, and those in power tend to promote the wealth carrot meme to insure the minions will vilify any of us who question the merit of 'capitalism.' Perhaps it's time now to explore new and better ways to be economic creatures.
"400 people worldwide own and control better than 45% of this planets resources" documentation?
I'm not kidding. There's one.
or just innuendo? ps you forgot the pope.
God only knows what the Vatican owns. Ha,ha. But really. They won't tell, so it's got to be big.
That's two.
The impression was left that we’d all be able to pull up a chair and watch administration officials and lawmakers hash out their philosophical and policy differences as they make laws that affect our lives.
What do we get?
"Members of President Obama's deficit commission huddled behind closed doors Wednesday despite pleas from the left and right that they hold all their meetings in public."
This country is not the America I grew up in. My dad knew this was going to happen. He told me back in 1982 when Reagan busted the PATCO union (air traffic controllers)that this Country would never be the same. He knew that what Reagan had begun was a shift of control away from the people.
Here we are over 25 years later and we get a supreme court ruling giving corporations the same rights as people.
We all complain and talk about voting...hell our votes are useless. The entire political process is set so only the rich and powerful can get elected.. Tell me why a person would spend millions of dollars to get elected to jobs that pay $175,000 per year?
I don't know when, but I cannot help but think we are doomed. This once great Country will be a third world nation begging from the mega wealthy and China for scraps of bread.
Obama will not cut SS. Susie is projecting fear aagain.
right?
.
"and after an afternoon at the NASCAR track, we go to Wal-Mart and buy big-ass cans of cheez doodles."
...at work for you.
and really big bags of beans, rice, salt, sugar, & coffee, and bulk TP.
;^)
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Could be? Ever feel like a sacrificial Pawn?
Sacrificial?
The most daunting part of this whole scenario is the number of people who will die in defense of our rights and civil liberties. Many of us are already aware that we will be dead before the nation is healed.
that I have no doubt that the psycho/sociopaths who are enjoying their turn in the driver's seat would have no compunctions about murdering a couple hundred million in cold blood. It would be just another variable that they would play with in their calculus.
n/t
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
His presidency is weak. He's made too many faustian bargains and he takes his orders from The DLC. They've sold out just like the GOP to corporations who want to kill Social Security and have ever since it was created.
We're fucked.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
going to happen!
wasn't it old deadeye dick who chaired a secret energy task force?
now, "bloody barack" wants to keep this crap secret?
i did notice they found another 30 billion for our "overseas contingency force"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/afgh...
and who did i see last night on c-span speaking out against the afpak operation?
none other than ron paul.
they say politics makes strange bedfellows, maybe it is time for the left to hop in the sack with old dr. strange.
but seriously, i voted for obama, because i thought there was no other choice. i have seen comments suggesting that "purists" have been infiltrating blogs, trying to derail reform; my question is, how is that hopey-changey thing going for us? obama is a two-faced liar, no other way to put it.
when clinton dumped social security into the budget it made sense, mainly because that is the way it should be, we should take care of our people. face it folks, the only politics that matters is rich versus poor, and whether everyone has the right to share in the bounty of this country, don't fool yourselves "bloody barack" does not believe this, no matter how much he poses, because that is what he is, a poser.
Ignoring just about every comment above. Yeah, yeah, I'm soooo naiive. How can I not see the best program ever conceived may one day fail, so, we should kill it now. Real obvious logic at work. Yeah, no other motives here..
This whitness expresses the correct path and priorities. Social Security, that insurance program that all working people pay in to (not trust fund babies - it's a payroll tax), gives us a financial floor in old age. It also gives us all "skin in the game", stake in the WELL running of the gov't, not whining about it all the god damned day. So if the country is worried about the "government checkbook", how about the fucking wars that were just charged to the future? Where the hell were all you deficit alarmists, then? Oh, driving in your SUV, ok, got it. Hey, what happened to that behemouth? How's it workin' out for ya? Oh, you moved in to it when they took the house, huh? Third house in 8 years, right, right. Made a killing on the first two? Wow, good for you! You're a real financial mogul, arncha? Hey, speaking of entitlements, remember the first house or two where you were able to shield all that profit from income taxes? I think it was half a million in untaxed capital gains? Yeah, right. Well, you deserved it. You EARNED it. Really, I'm sure you did. Didn't even have to work, huh? Made so much your house really was your "ATM", right? So, you haven't paid payroll taxes for some years, 'cause you haven't had a job. So you never paid in to Social Security. So why don't you shut up, gather some wood for the hobo campfire, and leave the insurance program to those that pay in and participate in this society, holding jobs and all that. Or, at least TRY to hold jobs, and create wealth for everyone. What's that? Oh, you're trying to get a job now? Yeah, tough, that.
Likewise for the public option. It could simply be a PLAN, not administered by the gov't, just defined by the gov't. Private companies can compete on providing that defined level of care (and add plans that go beyond that - gold plated pacemakers, viagra, gold plated viagra, whatever...)
OK, better finish this now. The public library with the free internet where the raving lunatic little rockerfellers are ranting from is closing early (Governor X has slashed the budget) and I want them to read this so they have something to think about as they watch free fireworks this.. what? Oh, not Governor X, Governor Z, yes, he's slashed even more than the other guv. OK, no fireworks to celebrate what a strong, noble country this is. Ah, well, better luck next year.
Obama is not going to sit by and throw Social Security under the bus. To suggest that he would do this has not looked hard at what this administration has accomplished over the past year and a half. Sure, it's not ideal for us progressives, but in the real world it beats the alternative. One way it could be a lot worse would be for angry pouty progressives to sit at home on election day and let the independents and republicans elect some tea baggers to take over the house and senate.
Anyway, it's an historical fact that fucking with social security is a political loser, always has been. The repubs are just too dumb to realize that fact in order to suck up to their shrinking constituency of the super rich and the crazy southern white.
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nor do the people he has appointed to the commission, nor does the fact that he buys into the bogus premise that SS is in trouble in the frist place, nor does the fact that he seems to hold to no principles that he isn't instantly willingly to abandon in pursuit of some transient, half-assed expedient whilst calling such lack of integrity "pragmatism", as if such failings were a sign of some special brand of savvy.
I think that they don't care about political consequences, because they are so confident that they control all outcomes that it doesn't matter what the people think. this would be one more example of the process that despots go through as they consolidate power...the point where they can drop pretenses of carring about the people they are working to eventually oppress and tyranize. When the grasp on power is secure enough, the despot no longer needs to waste energy pretending to care about the well-being of those whose support was intially needed to accede to power.
It will be the unemployed Democrats who are wondering why no one helped them.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
and they talk about republican'ts shooting themselves in the foot.
vote in an election, you are confirming that you think your vote counts. Maybe it does, but it probably does not. Most DC pols are not representing real people. Accept that fact. One cannot solve a problem unless one admits it exists.
really think that Dems will be sitting at home election day you may have a problem. Believe me, they know it's the republican'ts that are blocking everything. Do you think they give a rat's ass about the deficit?
pull this stunt, before everyone catches on? They are NOT powerless, but they play that in public.
With Pelosi, it was thus: impeachment & single-payer -- off the table;
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With Reid, it was thus: we need 60+ votes, or 80+ votes to do anything.
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But Constitutionally, the Senate has always been 50 votes + the VP's vote ...
And as I recall, that's the way the Bush / Cheney Republicants worked it ...
8^(
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
but the problem for obama will be more with independents
wonder? I don't believe in the "independent" threat. It's a Rovian lie.
well, i guess there's one: me, i am a registered independent
how many are there, and are you going to vote GOP?
I'm going to say, based on your comments, that you will NOT vote for the GOP. Am I right? The GOP claims that all or most Independents will side with them is what I challenge. Not the existence of the Independents.
I could have made that clearer.
never would i vote for a republican, you are right.
"The GOP claims that all or most Independents will side with them is what I challenge."
yes, this is a dubious claim made by the GOP--and used as a cudgel by the chattering class to try to move obama further to the right. but, i agree, it is a pretty big assumption.
They don't have to, they took college deferments...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
i resemble that remark.
accomplished what? selling the american people down the river to the insurance companies?
continuing two illegal occupations? so the bourgeoisie can continue raking in the loot?
what planet do you live on? does the word conscience ring a bell? how many people have to die? seriously, how many women and children have to die before "progressives" will face up to the truth about this man?
How do you know you're listening to a DLC propangandist? Hints are when he refers to progressives as children ("pouty") or "whiners"; when he says we should "trust Obama"; when he makes hollow claims about Obama's accomplishments; when he tries to scare us into submission with the alternative; when he uses the word "teabagger" or "Kucinich" (or calls you one).
" I was told that Obama's reelection strategy was based on allowing Social Security cuts to win over independent voters. (Apparently it polls well with the Tea Party crowd.)"
By whom?
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
that other worthless asshole.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
Didn't you get the memo? Any egregious claims about Obama are now fair game.
It's seems there are a whole lot of people who really need to paint Obama as the Democratic version of Dummya, so they can flip out and release all their frustration.
I've gotten used to Susie Madrak's hit pieces on Obama, but this one is the most shameless. All speculation and defamation.
On a positive note, Susie's qualified to work for Faux now.
I was kind of hoping for a little transparency in the sourcing.
I would think Obama basing his re election campaign around cutting Social Security was the kind of scoop that might get Ms. Susie a Pulitzer and some prize money.
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
they don't call it the third rail for nothing.
They'll let it dry up and wither away before they do anything significant . . like save it.
"I was told that Obama's reelection strategy was based on allowing Social Security cuts to win over independent voters. (Apparently it polls well with the Tea Party crowd."
This settles it for me. This dude really is a fucking clueless idiot with a pathological need to be liked. At any expense to evidently.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
I have no faith in Obama to anything except extend his power. The only ray of hope I see on SS is this; perhaps he intends to bring cutting SS to a head by Congress passing the Deficit Commission cuts & then standing up “boldly” to his own commission & “protecting” SS from their destructive measures. Far fetched? Yes, but hardly beyond President Corkscrew.
Last night Pelosi slipped language into the War Appropriation bill that would require the Lame Duck Congress to vote on the Deficit Commission findings in Dec. This allows her to pretend its beyond her control then, if few enough people know about this trick now. The Commission will likely suggest ideas nearly identical to Boehner ideas like raising retirement age, means testing & benefit cuts. All things she attacked Boehner for supporting just 2 days ago. Such integrity. I repeat, thanks to Nancy, the fix in in for the Deficit Commission plans to pass in December.
SS and the war, and let the cat out of the bag. This is probably all choreographed. They should give Boehner a breathalyzer test before they let him speak in public. I'm glad they didn't, though, as I love unanticipated insights.
The usual inerrant unnamed birdie? You asked some "activists", presumably ones who agree completely with your rather pessimistic view of politics and they assured you that Obama's re-election strategy was to commit political suicide. Therefore it must be true.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
.
is essentially an entitlement program. They need to cut it drastically; at least in half. Republicans hate entitlement programs, so they should love that.
End both wars now and bring the troops home and let the Bush tax cuts expire.
It's the only way to go.
They will NEVER touch SS in an election year.
There will be no significant reductions in SS.
If someone here would like to give me the names of the 14 members of the commission who will support cuts to SS, I'd like to see them now.
Right now I see a lot of hysterics with very little to back it up other than hyperbole upon hyperbole.
JMO, we'll see who is right.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q0HB2...
Careful with the namecalling savannah. I realize that the minute opinion on any given subject here reaches above 70% agreement, the sharks are in the water, but the rest of us are still entitled to our opinions too.
And that link doesn't prove shit.
IMO, this commission is about giving the deficit hawks a chance to place themselves on record without weasel words, and giving the American public a chance to have a dialogue about their budget priorities.
Honestly, I think the probability is that this commission's efforts will amount to nothing except fodder for the talking heads and bloggers. I don't see Dems agreeing to SS cuts (and yes, that includes Obama), and I absolutely don't see GOPers agreeing to tax increases.
As long as the gridlock continues in DC, I don't see anything effective being done about the deficit/debt.
any significant cuts to SS require a whole lot of congress critters to say aye when the time comes? I believe it would. And I doubt very many Republicans, never mind Democrats, would have the balls to do it. I agree with your assessment. This is more about getting people to commit to policy positions than about changing policy.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
too. Just to cover their own asses.
And proud to be one. But you're entitled to all of your opinions, including thinking "smart ass" is an insult.
(The final paragraph) "You are plainly not equipped by disposition or resources to take on the true cause of deficits now and in the future: the financial crisis. Recommendations based on CBO's unrealistic budget and economic outlooks are destined to collapse in failure. Specifically, if cuts are proposed and enacted in Social Security and Medicare, they will hurt millions, weaken the economy, and the deficits will not decline. It's a lose-lose proposition, with no gainers except a few predatory funds, insurance companies and such who would profit, for some time, from a chaotic private marketplace. Thus the interesting twist in your situation is that the Republic would be better served by advancing no proposals at all."
To read all, go here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/...
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