Tag Archives: Tea Party

Political Rants

Roger, out.

Again, just some thoughts. I’m overloaded, as usual. Details at eleven.

Cain’s out. No more Herman Cain. That’s disappointing in a way, though I can’t say as I’m all that disappointed whenever a manifestly incompetent right-wing shill is deemed unfit for service as president. He would have been the conduit through which Randy Scheunemann, Phil Graham, and other luminaries would have run the country into yet another deep ditch. Of course, that would be true of practically anyone on the Republican deck right now, save Gingrich, who would likely insist on doing everything (badly) himself. I will, however, miss the Pokeman quotes, the seeming lack of conviction that a president actually needs to show any interest in politics or administrative policy, foreign or domestic. He’s like the cut-out who can’t hide the fact that he’s a cut-out: there’s obviously no other reason for him to even want to be president than to carry out the wishes of corporate America more consistently than even their bought and paid-for politicians of both parties.

Ging-riches. Speaking of corporate shills, our former speaker seems to keep rocketing higher in the polls. Unstoppable. They’ve even started phoning my brother in New York, never a Republican he, asking him to volunteer. (A hilarious recording of this conversation will be included in Big Green’s Christmas podcast, coming up soon.) Obviously they’ve got some cash on hand. Perhaps old Newt is pumping some of his ample riches into the effort, earned cashing in on his government connections and experience. All those riches haven’t softened the old bugger one iota. That thing about nine-year-olds becoming school janitors, cleaning out the can – that is vintage Gingrich. I have to appreciate the way, even in describing such a Swiftian enterprise, he manages to get a dig in about “unionized Janitors.” It reminded me of the classy way his former lieutenant, Tom Delay, described his failure to serve in the military during Vietnam (a war I’m certain he supported) as a case of having been kept out of the army because an illegal immigrant took his place. In any case, I’m expecting unbounded riches from Newt over the coming months.

Drone nation. The Iranians have captured one of our drones, evidently involved in yet another undeclared war by remote control. Aside from morals and ethics and basic human decency, this is the policy downside of all this drone use: it’s just too damn easy. Obama is using them more and more, in more countries – it’s the ultimate mission creep, and it’s going to blow up in our faces, frankly.

Yeah, I know – the G.O.P. will do it too if they take control. That shouldn’t stop us from calling Obama and telling him to knock it off.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Shortcakes.

I’ll just do short takes today. No, not shortcakes! Short TAKES, damnit!

Ten and Counting. I find it hard to mark the anniversary of 9/11. I’ve always kind of bridled at the idea, pretty much since the first six-month anniversary of that awful day. It’s a thing that’s always with us, seared into our consciousness, a pall cast over our democracy. Do we need a ceremonial reminder? I don’t know. If it brings people solace in some small way, it’s worth it. For myself, though, it feels superfluous. Every day is a reminder.

There are enduring monuments to that day. Probably the most imposing are our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, still going after the death of Osama Bin Laden. What a legacy, eh? All the more bitter, really, since we still have malevolent actors like Dick Cheney running around, peddling their twisted rationales for atrocities they played a central role in committing. Even with all this, I spent a good amount of time watching that film by those French guys who were with the firehouse that first responded to the Trade Tower disaster. Gripping stuff. Those firefighters are giants.

Lend Me Your Keynes.  Obama has proposed something about a third the size of what’s needed, but that, in the current political circumstances, is about twice the size of what I’d expected from him. I’m not crazy about the trade deal component – that seems like bailing out the boat on one end and poking a hole in the hull on the other – but otherwise it’s not bad, nor are some of the “pay-fors” proposed in the form of tax increases on rich people. Of course, Boehner and his chorus of tea party clowns are rending their garments, swearing to oppose any new spending or increased taxes, clinging to the same tired arguments that got us here in the first place – cut taxes, slash spending, eliminate regulation.

Here’s the thing: if we keep cutting, we undercut anything that resembles a recovery. I know the republicans don’t like the idea that federal spending creates jobs, but they also don’t like the idea of anthropogenic global warming or evolution. Their not liking something doesn’t make it any less true. Spending on infrastructure projects, aid to states and localities, and the like saves and creates jobs, period. It did in 2009-10, just not enough to pull us out of the titanic hole George W. Bush and the “slash taxes and regulations” crowd pitched us into last time we let them drive.

Congress: shut up and pass the freaking bill. People need work and you’ve got nothing. Just pass it.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Cash poor.

Americans are hurting. Well… not all of us. Some of us – those who can claim the mantle of corporate “personhood” by virtue of a bizarrely generous judicial interpretation of the 14th Amendment –  are doing quite well, thank you very much. Profits are up, executive pay is up, personal wealth among the top 1% is up – in fact, virtually all of the gains realized through economic growth over the past ten years have been enjoyed by the very wealthy. This while the economic position of people in the lower strata of society – particularly communities of color – have seen what wealth they may have held (principally in their homes) wiped out. Blacks and Latinos have seen the gains of the past 30 years wiped away in less than 3.

With millions of people out of work, you would think Congress’s top priority would be job creation. That was what they ran on in 2010, not so much on debt reduction. The best the G.O.P. can manage is to twist the issue around to becoming a tortured argument for doing what the party always does – cut taxes on rich people. They want to allow rich folk to keep more of their money so that they will, in turn, hire some of the legions of unemployed. They cling to this belief, rhetorically at least, even when it’s clear that a) businesses already have multiple trillions in savings they are sitting on right now, and b) they have no intention of spending any of it on new hires so long as they can press their current employees to do the work of three, four, perhaps more. Ask anybody who’s got a job, and they’ll tell you – increased productivity is just the modern term of art for speeding up the assembly line.

Meanwhile, our national infrastructure is falling apart. Bridges in my upstate community are aged and crumbling, the water system is falling apart, roads are pitted and broken. With all this, the word that we get from Albany and Washington is austerity. It’s as if we have as a society decided that roads and bridges no longer need maintenance and repair, and that our highest calling is to keep taxes on companies and well-off people at historic lows. The vaunted debt ceiling compromise takes this tack – we don’t need to invest in ourselves, we’re told; we need to divest ourselves of all the trappings of modern society, from freedom of choice and to the freedom of driving downtown without having the highway crumble beneath you. That’s the essential philosophy of the tea party loomers in Congress.

This is what happens when 16% of American voters bother to go to the polls, as happened last Fall. Next time, folks, don’t sit on your hands.

luv u,

jp