Category Archives: Political Rants

Political Rants

Stranger than.

Here is what I’m thinking about this week. Nothing too much out of the ordinary, frankly.

Another lie falls flat. Just listened to a harrowing story on Democracy Now!, about ten days old (I listen to the podcasts up here in nowheresville). Amy Goodman was talking to the wife of an Iraqi detainee – a partially disabled ex-general who’s been locked up by the Iraqis for about a year, tortured hideously, without charge or any prospect for release. The story is sadly familiar in its contours – you can find similar ones in practically every country we’ve ever “helped”. Listening to it, I could only think of one of the many justifications for the invasion of Iraq; that of protecting human rights, ending torture, etc. There will be no more rape rooms, George W. Bush promised to the Iraqis as he announced his unilateral, criminal war in March 2003.  Well…. there are rape rooms. Another lie bites the dust.

Not your monkey. It’s the economy, stupid, to be sure, but what about the economy? If a generalization can be made about the past three decades in U.S. economic history, it’s that the rich have done extremely well and the middle class and poor have lost ground… lots of ground. Someone no doubt has shouted “class war!” already, but friends, there has been a class war underway for thirty years now, and it’s being waged on us. And frankly, we’re losing. Part of the reason for that is that we are atomized, disorganized, and at war with one another. We are encouraged to be so from the moment we become aware of the world around us.

Look at the media / pundit reaction to the massive protests across Europe in opposition to austerity measures (to the extent that they’ve been covered, that is). Over here, the narrative is that these are spoiled workers complaining about nothing. Unspoken is the fact that, here in the land of the free, it is literally against the law to call a general strike (see: Taft-Hartley). What those folks are doing across the pond is something we are not allowed to do, with our constitution, bill of rights, etc. That’s because they’ve hung together and fought to hold on to their rights, whereas we appear poised to allow the true party of corporate power (rather than the second-choice party of corporate power) to run the game again.

When will we stop losing this class war? When we finally stand up and tell that top 3 percent that we’re not their monkey anymore.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Contact with America.

First item: the Democrats are among the most exasperating political parties on Earth. They seem to have an innate sense of how to alienate their core voters, casting over the side any item of legislative action – the public option, Medicare expansion, don’t ask don’t tell, the fight over middle class vs. top 3% marginal tax rate reductions, etc. – that is remotely popular.

That said, let’s look at their opponents. Probably a good idea, since there’s an election coming up. And these folks look pretty grisly. Oddly, they picked what looked like a Home Depot lumber department to announce their “Pledge To America”, a lobbyist-written document full of stuff that would make, well, lobbyists very happy. (Perhaps the choice of venue is their way of telegraphing the kinds of jobs they plan to create. How do you look in an orange vest?) Rather than talking about what’s in the document, let’s look at what they didn’t put in there… but which they advocate none the less:

Privatization of Social Security. It’s no secret that most if not all G.O.P. legislators are in favor of converting Social Security into a glorified 401(k) plan with private accounts. This has long been their goal, given their hostility to the very notion of the social contract that is at the heart of that very successful program. They will, like W. Bush and others (including, amazingly, more than a few Democrats), appeal to individual greed in hopes of building support for ending this guaranteed supplemental income that has lifted elderly people from poverty for the past seventy years.

Gutting Medicare. They hate this one, too, no matter what they tell you. The Republicans want to move to something more like a voucher system, so that old and sick folks can go out and buy coverage on the open market – so easy to do when you’re old and sick. Is Medicare losing money? I would expect so, since it only covers (wait for it) old and sick people. If they want it to be solvent, why not expand it to include everybody… including those who don’t need a lot of care? I’m just saying.

Dismantling the Veteran’s Administration medical system. Same deal – vouchers instead of reliable care. This has been shamefully advanced by John McCain, whose beer-heiress wife will pay his medical bills if needed, no doubt.

Nothing particularly new in this list. And there are those amongst the Democrats who would jump right on board with most or all of it. But if the Republicans fail to gain a majority, they would never have the opportunity to do so… so let’s save them (and us) from themselves.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Pay days.

Writing this totally on the fly, so try to read fast and skip over any errors in grammar (or judgment). Have a heart, will you?

Tax fraud. It was probably inevitable that, as the sunset for the Bush 2003 tax cuts approached, the chorus of whining from the well-to-do would begin in earnest. Now we are faced with the remarkable phenomenon of hearing politicians who identify the federal deficit as public enemy #1 argue forcefully for an extension of tax relief for millionaires that will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt over the next ten years. I know Americans have a short memory, but some of you out there must surely remember the 1990s. Were rich people overtaxed in those days? They seemed to be living pretty high at the time. Then their president, W. Bush, had the audacity to deeply cut their taxes with one hand while he launched two pointless wars with the other. Having blown a huge hole in the budget, they now want to stretch it wider. Time to come in now, children. You’ve had enough fun.

Job one. The president has been speaking a bit more forcefully about the economy in recent days. That is good, but not good enough. We need a deeper, broader commitment to the notion of full employment in this country, and to back it up with some appropriate action.  Various T.V. pundits blandly claim that there is little government can do, but I disagree. The fact is, government has to take steps to provide incentive to industry to employ workers in this country. They could start with procurement. The entire Federal Government, including the Defense Department, should require all contracts to be fulfilled with U.S. labor. If we need it, let’s build it here. We’ve got the skills, the money, and a workforce more than ready to do the work.

Would this be in violation of our myriad trade agreements? I hope so. Then maybe we could dump out of them altogether. That is the commitment Obama needs to make. Stop making it easy to export manufacturing and other jobs. Use the power of the federal government to drive domestic manufacturing and service employment. And for Christ’s sake, if people are willing to work and can’t find a job, provide them with work.

There’s plenty that needs doing in this country. Let’s get it done… and put people to work at the same time.