On the LOCAL NPR station...

[nadinbrzezinski]

Today we had a very local show, and they were talking about unemployment insurance and how it went in Imperial County, were the OFFICIAL rate is close to 20%... get that...

So this is not even the unofficial rate, which is in the upper 30%s if we are lucky.

So one of the talkers raised the specter of.... RIOTS... and the other non challantly said, yes, you can track them every time we have this happen in history. Now these are the editors for the San Diego Union Trib... not even worth as a fish wrap, and a couple local indie papers.

Yes, it will lead to riots, desperation always does that.

So the moderator asked the OBVIOUS question, should insurance be extended?

The answer from the U-T Editor was NYET... I mean it only encourages people NOT to look for a job.

It was one of those... Alice in Wonderland moments... And this is what we face. They know that we will have riots... it happens every time... but we cannot do what should be done to avoid them... wonders never, ever... cease.

[ejpoeta]

1. why would it encourage poeple to not look for a job. do you know what you have to do to

collect unemployment??? go in and show them you are LOOKING FOR A JOB!! wtf!

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. It goes back a long time

before the US was a twinkle of a nation. But the RW believe this with a passion. You help the poor, you encourage sloth

It is not logical, history ain't gonna prove it, but they believe it with to the last... and obviously the 99's are NOT deserving poor....

:sarcasm:

[ejpoeta]

5. all it means is it will be even harder to get a job considering it costs

money to put gas in the car and get someone to watch the kids while you go to interviews and of course if you end up living in your car and have no address you sure as hell won't be able to get a job. especially when we keep hearing about employers who only want to hire poeple already employed!! GRRRR!!!! man, i so wish our representatives had to fucking live with the choices they make for the rest of us!

[Greyhound]

2. K&R. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Ignorant lemmings...manipulated by the evil and the greedy...

http://markmaynard.com/?p=7501

<snip>

The best part of the article is the contribution by Thomas Frank, the author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Here’s a highlight:

….Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America’s poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

Thomas Frank says that whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:

“You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining… It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy.”

As Mr Frank sees it, authenticity has replaced economics as the driving force of modern politics. The authentic politicians are the ones who sound like they are speaking from the gut, not the cerebral cortex. Of course, they might be faking it, but it is no joke to say that in contemporary politics, if you can fake sincerity, you have got it made.

And here, according to the author of the article, is the big takeaway message from all of this… “If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them. They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best. There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots. As the saying goes, in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing. And that makes anything as complex or as messy as healthcare reform a very hard sell.”

<snip>

[sarcasmo]

6. The real numbers would send the sheep into a panic.

[demigoddess]

7. I listened to Rush Limbaugh for years

working to convince his listeners that growing up poor is good for you. He spent years on it. I think it was a major brainwashing tactic that was aimed at convincing people that tax cuts for the rich and low wages for the working class was a good thing. After all, being poor, growing up poor, is good for you. I heard the wildest stories that were supposed to support his premise. It was all leading to this situation that we are in today.
Don't think of Rush Limbaugh as stupid, think of him as the propaganda arm of the GOP.

[0rganism]

8. It'd be a huge mistake to think that Limbaugh and his ilk are stupid

They have furthered their interests and those of their financial backers admirably. They are elite agents of the biggest organized propaganda effort in history, and they are well compensated for their considerable skills.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. These attitudes are much older than Rush

I wish it was not so, but it is. These moral attitudes that the poor are less than and only the righteous make it go to at least the 1500s, but since we really do not know the dirty bits of History... and only the myth...it is very easy.