May 30, 2015

Hillary has a lot of negative history, what's wrong with bringing it up?

She supported trade bills that have sent millions of jobs to slave labor in Mexico and Asia, causing devistation to the middle class and below.

Her wealth has been earned by trading facile, stroking speeches to Wall Street CEOs for political access and millions in cash.

Her State Dept. legacy with Syria, Libya, Yemen and Israel has left chaos, death and destruction in it's wake.

Her history as a Walmart director (one of the nations most exploitative companies) far overshadows any fancy speeches about equal pay.

Her views on same sex marriage changed as soon as her team of advisers revealed that it was no longer convenient to speak out against it.

She's been silent on contemporary civil rights abuses against minorities, silent on NSA overreach, silent on TPP. Silent on our failed no child left behind policies.

In fact, she's been silent on just about every necessary change needed to advance the quality of life for those in the middle class and below. Who is she really campaigning to represent?

We deserve a better presidential nominee than this.

Bernie Sanders is better than this.

And this is something all the cash on Wall Street cannot buy.

May 30, 2015

"They don’t look at these things unless money is offered, and it has to be $500,000.”

If we want to change anything, we have to end the sleazy 3rd-way political influence being bought and sold in the free market. I have long argued that the Clinton's are using their political celebrity to divert cash away from worthy organizations struggling to make a difference.

We need to stop pretending this shit smells like roses and reform the Democratic Party.

Haitians protested outside the gala organized by the Happy Hearts Fund, which has worked with the Clinton Foundation on projects in Haiti. Credit Tony Savino/Corbis

May 29, 2015

for the love of god, stop telling us what to write...

If there is a candidate who doesn't represent the best interests of the average working Americans and who has a history of supporting and being supported by Wall Street, has an aggressive pro-military posture, then we better damn well speak up about it.

What could be more democratic than this?

And, stop with the bullshit concern attacks against anyone who points out the inconvenient truth that some Democrats support many core Republican principals - such as Wall Street deregulation, tax benefits for large corporations, off shoring of US jobs, horrible welfare reforms, free trade agreements, oil drilling and fracking in wilderness areas, etc.

You have a choice.

If you want to hear carefully scripted views designed not to offend the status quo, then go watch CNN.

May 26, 2015

Bernie Sanders never told us to stop criticizing Hillary's Wall Street dependency

We won't be silent. The emphasis is mine:

“I will tell you that I have never run a negative political ad in the state of Vermont in my life. People of Vermont know that. I just don't think that that's what politics is about. So, will I criticize Hillary Clinton on her position of TPP, or the lack of position? Will I criticize her on her views of Wall Street? Will I criticize her on foreign policy? That's what democracy is about. But taking cheap shots at people, making it personal, I don't think that's what politics should be about.”

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/05/24/sen-bernie-sanders-i-vt-to-brian-stelter-on-cnns-reliable-sources-you-have-abc-cbs-and-nbc-not-devoting-one-minute-to-the-most-significant-trade-agreement-in-the-history-of-the-usa/

May 26, 2015

Technocrats, the Third Way and the Death of Diversity

I had some time this weekend to put some thoughts down on paper and started expanding on the idea that we are a technocratic state run by 3rd way types in both parties. I only got this far, but maybe someone can pick up on the theme and do a better job of it.

I'm not talking about ethnic diversity. I'm talking about something deeper. I'm talking about the native and organic aptitude and talent that people are born with. It's what makes a musician and the carpenter and the scientist what they are. It's exactly this human diversity of talent being stripped from businesses, occupations and careers in the US, replaced by a political vision of an engineered society, operating lock-step as a machine, serving the needs of our political elite. I've come to believe that organic human diversity of skill is far more threatening to our ruling oligarchy than any perception of race or sex. If there is going to be a challenge to the status quo, it's going to come from people who have the raw talent to imagine something better than the unacceptable state of our class based society which values wealth over justice and equality. Somewhere in that talent pool are people who share a gift with those who first formed the nation in search of justice and equality. After all, by the standards of their day, they were extraordinarily successful. And that surely must scare our ruling class to death.

The neo-lib and neo-con both have faith in the idea that corporate efficiency can solve difficult social problems. But in actuality, the deference to corporate interests as a legitimate political principal is just a bullshit cover for the dirty business of financing the high standard of living of our political leaders. We are expected to blindly accept the idea that the wealthy leadership of our party represents proof of good, while the wealthy leadership of their party represents proof of evil. But the truth is, political leadership in both parties has dignified, through the use of complex, high-minded semantics, the act of taking cash in return for passing laws and entitlements exclusively beneficial to corporations. From a technical point of view, what could be more efficient than a government that takes cash for service?

To legitimize this corruption within the context of a nation of self-governing people, the corporations simply reclassified themselves as corporate-persons, with the same basic rights of an individual. This recent development is something unlikely to ever be challenged by our political elite because it is an abstraction fully compatible with the core governing principals of a political monopoly, namely that people must earn the right (literally, in cash) to be represented by their own government.

So, here we are. A nation governed by corporations.

If there's one thing corporations know how to do, it's how to apply technology and automation to create a consistent product. We've got it all down to a science. From the moment a child is placed on the conveyor belt, they are moved down a line of corporate designed standard curriculum and quality control tests. Schools automatically filter out the defects, those outside corporately acceptable tolerances. Once pulled from the line, you end up in a bin for discard or recycling. This bin is commonly known as the US prison system.

At the end of the line, a successful product is optimally refined to meet the immediate need of today's market. Of course the immediate needs changes on a daily basis as we try to out smart the corporate forces sending jobs to Mexico one day, China the next, India the next and Vietnam the next in a never ending pursuit of nations willing to enforce rock bottom standard of living conditions for their workers.

The technocrats actually envision a nation where we start each day checking the market conditions for our chosen profession ready to move from electronics technician to carpenter to auto mechanic to computer programmer at a moments notice. To the 3rd way, there are no careers or native talents. Skills are just an abstraction, something bought and sold on the market, like stock in a company. If you get washed out of the American dream, its only because you were too lazy to pay attention and invest in the most profitable market of the moment.

We have come to devalue a career as something you buy from a low wage workforce in a god forsaken hell hole in Asia. The consequences of this reckless and dangerous transition to a "knowledge based economy" is that we are literally losing the ability to innovate in areas that keep the nation competitive. We can't all make a living giving $300,000 "knowledge" speeches on the lecture circuit. By not developing essential hands-on skills we are becoming a highly engineered monoculture, susceptible to a single point of failure.

Consider that our banking system recently collapsed due to criminal activity. Our inability to punish the perpetrators and conspirators, perfectly illustrates this important point. Surely there are skilled individuals with the talent, regulatory background and proper sense of right and wrong who understand how important it is to serve justice to the criminals behind this massive fraud. The sense of honor and patriotism in being able to serve the nation by bringing justice should be motivation enough... where are they? I argue they've been deliberately washed out of our government as adding no value to our nation's newly developed corporate mission statement.

That's as far as I got...

May 25, 2015

There may not be an official military draft, but there seems to be a virtual one

A few years ago I was walking between airport terminals and passed a women in fatigues, pack at her side, crying by a window. I turned around and asked if there was anything I could do. She was heading back to Afghanistan, distraught about another long and difficult deployment. We talked a while. She came from poor family with no chance to pay for college. The Army offered training, pay and a way out. So she signed up, hoping to learn IT skills to land a job after her tour. I listened carefully, some of it was heartbreaking. It was a story I had heard before, from others, and continue to hear to this day. I'm sure we've all heard similar stories as well.

Something is way out of balance.

Here are the facts of our economy for a non-rich American:

- Good paying jobs continue to hemorrhage to China, India, Mexico, Brazil, etc as a result of our never ending trade agreements to ship US jobs to low wage labor markets.

- Education costs continue to rise at 2X and 3X the rate of inflation as colleges fill up with wealthy students from China, India and Wall Street families, the sole beneficiaries of our trade agreements. Students from wealthy families of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kuwait, etc are crowding out non-rich students from college classrooms.

- The minimum wage, adjusted for inflation has decreased since 1968. It should be about $20 per hour.

- Middle class wages and wealth remains virtually unchanged since the late 1970s, while the top 10% have seen their incomes and wealth increase by 100 to 1000 of percent, after being adjusted for inflation.

- Employers are not hiring anyone with an arrest record, dismissed or not.

Kids are joining the military for economic opportunity. Shouldn't service be a shared sacrifice? Why should the rich prosper by the sacrifices of the poor who serve?

Some days I think the draft is the right thing to do. But then I'm reminded that Dick Cheney and GW Bush and a battalions worth of right-wing Chickenhawks in Congress weaseled their way out of service.

Maybe the answer is mandatory service without exception, I don't know.

But I do know deliberately depriving people of the economic opportunity to build a life on their own is keeping our military flush with recruits who provide the necessary fodder for our misadventures in the Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

It almost seems by design.

As we reflect on the sacrifices of those who serve, let's acknowledge that the sacrifices must be shared more fairly between rich and poor.

May 24, 2015

To the people denying the fact that the TPP is a secret agreement...

Let me help.

You're welcome.

May 24, 2015

I'm going to hurl a few three letter "words" at President Obama's legacy

CIA
The CIA helped fabricate the intelligence used to create ten years of war and torture against a civilian Iraqi population that left over 100,000 dead, millions displaced and cost the USA trillions of dollars, ultimately giving birth to what we now call ISIS. Currently, the CIA is busy fomenting instability and hatred by killing civilians with terrifying drone attacks. Considered too big to fail, and beneficial to the economy of large defense contractors, the CIA intimidates the US Congress by a variety of means such as spying on Senate subcommittees. Obama has called CIA torturers "patriots" and proudly hailed the CIA for their work in Yemen despite its recent collapse into the hands of extremists whose motto is "Death to America". Obama promised during the 2008 campaign to reform the U.S. intelligence community, however, apologists maintain he had to say that to get elected.

NSA
NSA used the excuse of the Iraq War and the ironically named Patriot Act to begin an illegal dragnet surveillance program against the US civilian population under the guise of "safety". With helpful assistance from AT&T and other core carriers, email, phone calls, credit card purchases, medical records, literally every internet transaction by you and your family is being collected and analyzed in an effort to assign every individual in the USA a threat risk. As of 2014 the threat list contained over 1.5 million names with an estimated growth rate of approximately 20,000 per month. James Clapper willfully lied to Congress about the extent of NSA activities and NSA spying against the governments of NATO allies such as Germany continues to erode trust and goodwill.

Critics of NSA argue that giving the government authority to analyze personal data, banking, stock market and business transactions using a massive network of computing resources allows the government to interfere with lawful civil protest, whistle-blowers, financial markets and political opposition. Defenders of NSA point to the fact that, since 911, the US has not been invaded by Germany as proof that the Obama’s strategy of surveillance is working. While Obama campaigned against spying, constitutional apologists are quick to point out that there is no mention of the internet in the Fourth Amendment.

DOJ
When Bill Clinton signed the law deregulating what banks can do with your money, banks used the new rules to build the world’s largest criminal enterprise, eventually holding the world hostage as they brought the global economy to collapse. The resulting ransom paid to Wall Street bankers ruined millions of lives, cost millions of jobs and trillions of dollars. While the most publicized felony crimes include mortgage fraud and currency manipulation, a plurality of other felony crimes, such as money laundering, forgery and lying to investigators, have been well documented.

Amazingly, while the US has the largest prison population in the world on a per capita basis, not a single Wall Street banker has been held accountable for these crimes. Instead, DOJ levied a symbolic series of fines and stern words as punishment. In return, the bankers promised to continue to fund the aspirations of our political leadership. Critics claim that by not prosecuting bankers for their crimes, there is no incentive for them to stop defrauding the United States. Wall Street apologists claim that any demand for Wall Street justice is just a symptom of “wealth envy” and it takes money to get elected.

DOI
Among other tasks, the Department of Interior facilitates corporate access to environmentally sensitive areas for oil drilling and fracking. Shortly after pronouncing deep water drilling absolutely safe, BP dumped millions of gallons of oil along the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama in history’s largest marine oil spill. Despite DOI’s best attempt to downplay the extent of the disaster (refusing to release flow rates, arresting people for digging in the sand, threatening reporters in boats, etc) the oil eventually washed ashore. The oil (and dispersant used to sink it to the ocean floor) continues to poison the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to cause mass kills of fish and wildlife well into the next century.

In a competitive bid to out-pollute BP, DOI has granted Shell Oil permission to start oil drilling operations in the wildlife rich area of the Alaskan wilderness. Known as the most violent and hostile ocean in the world, an oil spill would be literally impossible to contain. Apologists defend the Obama’s oil drilling priorities by suggesting the left just wants everyone to ride a horse to work.

TPP
Obama’s secret trade agreement written by hundreds of corporate lobbyists which cannot be viewed by the public, except by specially cleared members of Congress as long as they submit to being searched and agree, under penalty of jail, to not discuss or document any details of the agreement.

TPP is filled with hundreds of corporate entitlements and protections, including laws adjudicated by an extrajudicial tribunal staffed by corporations. Although the negative impact of trade agreements on non-rich Americans is well documented in the form of suppressed wages, destroyed communities, poverty, minority unemployment and massive import/export imbalances – previous trade agreements with Canada, Mexico, Korea, China and India have made a handful of super rich Wall Street CEOs so rich, they now fund and control the campaign of every candidate for Congress and the White House.

Environmental protections and worker’s rights are said to be mentioned somewhere within the TPP, but like every other trade deal, enforcement is a recommended but strictly unfunded, unenforced and optional provision of the agreement.
Apologists defend Obama and TPP by stating that they trust Obama, while claiming we are xenophobic against the low wage, unregulated workforce in Asia who will be helped with the millions of jobs we send them.

DOA
Under Obama, the wall between corporation and state needed to protect American workers and their families from those who do us harm has been demolished.

Bernie, we need you now, more than ever.

May 20, 2015

With TPP, some stuff will come back to our shores...

He can appeal to a corporate tribunal.

May 17, 2015

The Modern United States and the Agents of Our Decline

More at:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region#1