Reader blogs

Halo.

quinn esq — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:37:46 +0000

Haven't heard a voice like this since Jeff Buckley died.

Born Laura Pergolizzi. Now goes by "L.P." She's originally from NYC. Now L.A. Gay.

But just listen to that voice. Pure liquid. She does with this song what Buckley did with "Hallelujah."

Such a gift, when these ones come along.

Also, tough to beat this as a follow-up.

Mitt Romney: A Monument to American Gullibility

Wattree — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:53:17 +0000

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Mitt Romney: A Monument to American Gullibility

Every time the American people look at Mitt Romney they should get angry, because he’s the walking, breathing, personification of the biggest scam ever perpetrated on America, "trickle down" economics. Romney is the very embodiment of trickle-down economics returning to rub our stupidity in our face, right down to his cynical pauses . . . and sideways half-smile that seems to say, "Now, let’s see if you’re dumb enough to swallow this load of crap, yet again." He’s such a cynical, insincere, and obvious con man that if he didn’t exist Saturday Night Live would have created him. He’s as stiff and emotion free as Max Headroom, and just as contrived: "Yes, my good friends, and what I love most about your fair city is the height of the trees." What!!!?
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Trickle Down, or Supply- Side Economics, which came to be known as "Reaganomics," was a scheme hatch by U.S.C. economist Arthur Laffer and the Reagan crowd which was supposed to cut the deficit and balance the budget. The theory behind Reaganomics was ostensibly, if you cut taxes for business and people in the upper tax brackets, and then deregulated business of such nuisances as safety regulations and environmental safeguards, the beneficiaries would invest their savings into creating new jobs. In that way the money would eventually "trickle down" to the rest of us. Sound familiar? According to the scheme, the resulting broadened tax base would not only help to bring down the deficit, but also subsidize the tremendously high defense budget. When the plan was first floated, even George Bush, Reagan's vice president to be, called it "voodoo economics."
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Reaganomics, for the most part, sought to undo many of the safeguards put into place during the Roosevelt era and create a business environment similar to that which was in place during the Coolidge Administration. What actually took place, however, was even more like the Coolidge era than planed. Instead of taking the money and investing it into creating new jobs, the money was used in wild schemes and stock market speculation. One of these schemes, the leveraged buy out, involved buying up large companies with borrowed funds secured by the company's assets, then paying off the loan by selling off the assets of the purchased company. This practice cost the citizens of this country millions of jobs, and the country itself, its industrial base. In addition, the bottom fell out of the stock market. On Monday, October 19, 1987 the Dow-Jones Average fell 508.32 points. It was the greatest one-day decline since 1914 - fifteen years before the Great Depression.
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Even though this scheme has brought economic disaster to the American people several times in the past thirty years, the Republican party continues to repackage it and trot it back out every eight years or so. They tend to wait until after the Democrats have rescued the nation, and their previous disaster has retreated from the collective memory of the American electorate.
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Clear evidence of that is in spite of Ronald Reagan's grandiose promise to balance the budget and lower the deficit, by the time he left office he was not only the most prolific spender of any president in history, but he also added more to the deficit than all of the other presidents from George Washington to his own administration combined.
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Reagan tripled the national debt. It went from $712 billion in 1980 to $2,052 billion in 1988. And what was the Republican Party’s plan to deal with that disaster? In it’s "contract with America" (Republicans are real good with slogans), Newt Gingrich’s Republican-run congress proposed a capitol gains tax cut, for the rich.
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It took Democrat, Bill Clinton, to rescue the nation. David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers University, said the following regarding Bill Clinton’s presidency:
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"The Clinton years were unquestionably a time of progress, especially on the economy [...] Clinton's 1992 slogan, 'Putting people first,' and his stress on 'the economy, stupid,' pitched an optimistic if still gritty populism at a middle class that had suffered under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. [...] By the end of the Clinton presidency, the numbers were uniformly impressive. Besides the record-high surpluses and the record-low poverty rates, the economy could boast the longest economic expansion in history; the lowest unemployment since the early 1970s; and the lowest poverty rates for single mothers, black Americans, and the aged."
.On September 27, 2000, CNN reported:
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President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion. ‘This represents the largest one-year debt reduction in the history of the United States."

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Then came George W. Bush, with his huge tax cuts for the rich, and reinstituting the Republican philosophy of trickle-down economics and reckless deregulation. That led to the 2008 economic crash, bringing the nation within a hair’s breath of a second Great Depression, and creating the conditions under which we are currently suffering.
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The primary reason that the American people continues to be stiffed by the Republican Party is because the average American fails to understand that we don’t have just one economy, we have two. We have one economy that governs the prosperity of the investor class, and yet another that governs the prosperity of working class. And both classes are in direct competition for their part of the same economic pie.
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Thus, the problem is, in order for the investor class to prosper, they must squeeze every penny and concession out of the working class. So when Wall Street is celebrating a robust economy, that means they are producing more product with fewer jobs, fewer work hours, and lower pay for the workers. That’s how they make their profit.
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You see, in the past when the United States had a strong internal industrial base, the investor class and the working class complimented one another. The corporate community provided the working class with, essentially, lifetime jobs with solid security and a living wage. As a result, the working class could afford to purchase the goods and services that the corporations produced. So the working class and investor class had a symbiotic relationship. One insured the prosperity of the other.
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But now, in the new global economy, where what used to be considered American corporations have become international conglomerates that have to compete with countries that are paying their workers less per week than most Americans spend on lunch per day, the American worker has become a liability. Thus, the corporate community has a vested interested in lowering the standard of living of the American middle class.
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In order for them to make ever greater profits, they feel that they must squeezing every concession that they can get out of America, and the American worker. That accounts for the aggressive assault on our educational system. They need more worker bees and fewer thinkers - or trouble makers. It also accounts for the assault on collective bargaining, and all manner of corporate regulations and employee rights. In short, they’re on a mission to convert America from a democratic republic, to a corporate sweatshop.
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Now enter Mitt Romney. If we elect Romney, we’ll not just be electing an Republican politician who is highly sympathetic to the investor class, we’ll be electing, indeed, the poster child of the investor class, and the old trickle-down economics crowd. In fact, the Chairman of the Board, as it were. It would be like entrusting our child to one of the most infamous child molesters in the country.
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The New York Post reported in the Josh Kosman article, "Romney’s Past is More a Working Class Zero," "Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, bought companies and often increased short-term earnings so those businesses could then borrow enormous amounts of money. That borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends. Then those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts." But of course, the businesses generally couldn’t manage that, so workers were laid off and the business would go into bankruptcy.
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The article goes on to list some of the businesses that Mitt Romney squeezed the profits from, then sent into bankruptcy:
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"* Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

* Bain in 1997 invested $46 million when buying Details, and made $93 million from stock offerings. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003."
. So say what you will about President Obama, but it seems to me that the credentials of Mitt Romney and his Republican cohorts’ as job creators makes the president look like Santa Claus. If you agree, go tell a hungry Republican. He might be Black, but that IS a pork chop in his hand.

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that - God does.

Something Happened in Chicago I Hear

Another Trope — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:37:09 +0000

Another high profile political event came and went. This time it was NATO in Chicago. Some leaders met. Some people hit the streets to protest and have their voices heard. There was some clashes between police and protesters. Some people were hurt, some were arrested, some were hurt and arrested. The media took pictures and wrote stories about the leaders and the protests outside.

I know I am in some ways burned out about it all when the first thought is: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I am glad there were folks who took the time to protest the war. Just as I am increasingly irritated by the idiot Black Bloc protesters. My expectations for the leaders of NATO was low, so there was no disappointment there. Somehow for me, the following blog entry at the Chicago Tribune says something about just what it is we're facing:

Judith Olson was sipping wine at Bennigan's outdoor seating on Michigan Avenue when she noticed riot police lining up on the steps of the Art Institute across the street.

"I thought, 'this could get interesting,'" she said. Moments later protesters rounded the corner and began marching up the avenue.

"It was a bunch of kids, running and shouting, so it was a little intimidating."

But soon Olson was filming the marchers.

"It's made my evening a little more interesting," said Olson, a visiting nurse who lives a few blocks away and had seen the protesters throughout the week. She even planned a day of shopping knowing the shops on the Magnificent Mile would be empty.

"I just intuitively never felt threatened," she said, regarding the stalled traffic and riot police just a few feet from the half-empty al fresco dining area. "But the stores must be doing terrible. I feel awful for the businesses."

It was accompanied with the following pic:

Logging on

CVille Dem — Tue, 22 May 2012 01:47:30 +0000

I realize this is probably not the place for this, but couldn't find another.

I used to be able to click on this site and my last log-in showed up. Now, every time I click on DagBlog I have to re-log on, and even if I am logged on(as I am now), if I click on a headline, such as Ramona's (which I just did) I am no longer logged in.

Is this fixable? I don't comment as often as I used to, so it is not a huge problem, but it seems to be a glitch that should not be.

Any others with this problem?

Jan

Canada's Got Talent!

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 20 May 2012 20:42:48 +0000

Jenna Talackova becomes the first transgender woman to compete in the Miss Universe contest after Donald Trump reverses the decision to ban her.

Her argument, that she knew she was female at 4, is rather convincing. That part of her conversion involved hormones has its implications for sports parallels, as the Olympics is already trying to find a balance. But apparently female hormones remove any advantages in body strength from male crossovers.

In any case, there's nothing hormones can do to instill congeniality, the prize Talackova tied for despite losing the overall competition.

Overall, I'm probably a bit bemused and bewildered - I typically don't find Miss Universes attractive and the overall pageant is none too thrilling, and I've permanently associated beauty pageants with Jo Benet Ramsey and Hole's "Live Through This". So I guess another step in my "Here she is, Miss(ter) America" transition. Vive la difference.

Counting Saverin's Lucky Stars (and Tax Obligations)

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 20 May 2012 08:08:58 +0000

As Saverin seems to have gone off into tax haven lala-land, preferring some ex-British seat of imperialism for home of the brave and free, it's important he understand the continuing benefits he should be paying for. Such as:

- Department of Defense. While it's easy to discount the good we do, that $680 billion a year we pay to protect us from people who hate us for our freedoms isn't a cheap meal ticket. That's 10 Facebook IPO's per year. Every time we launch a drone strike in Pakistan or Yemen, or pay off an outraged village in Afghanistan, we're protecting him in Singapore as much as in ~~Wichita~~ Silicon Valley. The soon to be empty mega-mall Green Zone in Baghdad didn't come cheap, nor the black sites in Baghram and ~~******~~ and ~~**********~~ and ~~*****~~. We may have "led from behind" in Libya, but that leadership meant big buckaroos - solidifying Africa's biggest source of oil for decades. You can run a lot of Facebook data centers on that.

- Homeland Security. Pulling all those little orgs together may not have saved any money, but at least we can look at the pot and go "Wow! $60 billion a year". And when Saverin goes through customs and gets a body scan and a full cavity search, he'll know his tax dollars have been well spent, even before they ask him about suspected Brazilian terrorist roots and put him in isolation for 2 weeks without seeing his lawyer before packing him back to Singapore.

- Gulf Clean Up. Hope you didn't believe those headlines saying BP would handle this all, or a few good citizens picking up oil balls and dead seagulls on the beach - it's up to good citizens like Saverin to pick up the slack where capitalist markets and the free hand fail. Who says we don't do safety nets?

- GM Profits. Yes, our part ownership in GM continues to be a healthy investment we should all be proud of, currently running at 60 cents per share & 4% rev growth, rather than Facebook's 70 gazillion % & mega $$$. We shouldn't discriminate against the old economy - corporations have feelings too.

- Jobs Program. Just kidding, comic relief.

- Mortgage Bailout. Of course banks will pay something on the trillion dollar scandal, but $25 billion will only go so far - especially since states are already stealing the money to balance their budgets rather than helping out home owners. So we depend on enterprising souls like Saverin to step up to the plate and help out... or else. As the government will be carrying most of the burden from ignoring the problem and defending the banks, we need stalwart ~~citizens~~ tax refugees to do their part.

- Health Care. While it doesn't kick in until 2014, 5 years after Saverin's departure, and will be axed 15 minutes after the GOP gains control, we have a lot of committed expenses to making sure Big Pharma and Insurance companies make a long-term profit - can't be fair weather friends here. So just because Saverin's only 30 doesn't mean we haven't contemplated his long-term health needs and ability to pay. And the doctor says he could lose a kidney or liver to fund our system of overcharging - if not people like him, then who?

- Agriculture Subsidies. Yes, our health care system would be nothing without the steady flow of unnecessary treatment based on obesity, diabetes and other afflictions caused by Death Star portions of corn syrup provided in every packaged food stuff available. And that's only one of the benefits - think of the usefulness of propping up Iowa's economy so they can be the first caucus every 4 years, telling us how "real Americans" feel. It might seem a waste to a citizen from Brazil, where they can't get their efficient ethanol through your high tariff system, but that's exactly the point - we're keeping our agricultural freedom by holding out the riffraff of countries who'd do the job for less. And that security is worth something - ching ching.

- Gitmo, Medical Marijuana and Abortion. Yes, they're small issues, but it takes a lot of money for the Department of Justice to defend the right to detain and torture and override the wishes of individual states on privacy. Or use the levers of government to dictate state policy. Think of the teams of lawyers required to work around Geneva Conventions and regular tort laws, to find inventive ways to delay findings and assert national security over everyday emails. And whatever fails in legislative aisles can be asserted in judicial chambers to strike down long-standing case law - rather successfully once you've bought and paid for the bench. While government workers have the reputation of being too lazy to steal, the legal class combines the best of Wall Street and government - sometimes even at the same time and on the same payroll. The point being, this kind of influence (as someone from Brazil should know) doesn't come for free.

- Social Security. Yes, it's self-funding, no it won't go bankrupt, but since we're still stealing the Social Security surplus and underfunding obligations to give tax breaks to the rich, someone needs to help us pay for mandatory payouts, and we can't ask the poor we took it from to pay again. (Well, actually we could - we could call it "Preserving America's Financial Freedom Act" or something witty and patriotic.) And the rich who are already paying a pittance to influence our elections won't be bothered for more. Of course we know Social Security will be on sound footing no matter how much we raid the coffers and government overspends in other areas - because we've put a lien on the earnings of Mr. Saverin and other patriotic ex-citizens for the rest of their natural born lives. (We'd tax him through his children's lives too, but a tax on inheritance would be a "death tax", and we're not morbid - a tax on people who've left the country is much more fair and balanced).

- Wall Street. Yep, how else would Facebook make money on an IPO if we hadn't shuffled $2 trillion out the back door to prop up Goldman Sachs and their kin? And giving them 0% loans to loan back to the government rather than loaning to startups like Facebook as the law intended? Yes, Saverin owes an obligation to our financial foresightedness - being a hacker-type, he probably would have gone and wasted the money on foolish untested ventures like cloud computing centers and Zynga mobile games. Those guys manipulating Aunt Millie and shearing unsuspecting investors into pumping up the Facebook pyramid don't work for free - even during economic meltdowns and government bailouts, they need their bonuses to keep running, and it's the Facebooks of the world that ensures this system of patronage, hostile takeovers and naked short selling keeps on producing results, for better or worse. What would the American brand be without Wall Street? Hollywood, that's what - Silicon Valley would just be a burr on the butt of another west coast tourist ride.

- Occupy Wall Street. Encouraging dissent and coordinating illegal ways to shut it down is a fine balance we've perfected. Lesser countries would have their Arab Springs and other uncertainties during election years - for us, we make business more stable for the Facebooks of the world by manufacturing dissent and agreement - at the same time. Not only that, the faux outrage bolsters Facebook's bottom-line. Only Twitter has done better in the last 4 years, what with the historical election of 2008 and the social media trends ever since. Facebook wins every time Homeland Security launches a new on-line disinformation campaign, NSA data mines on-line chatting habits, companies require employees to turn over Facebook passwords, local police & DoJ coordinate to send in informers to stifle protest or put in shadow-puppets on-line - they all buy into the Facebook brand.

- Tax Havens. It's not by accident that US corporations are able to stuff away profits overseas, nor that we find ways for them to repatriate the same monies untaxed for a slim nickel. Why else would foreign investors put their money in mismanaged funds and overleveraged operations? (aside from insider lobbying and a gamed playing field). Where else could Steve Jobs pay himself a token $1 a year to avoid millions in income taxes? It takes a lot of imagination and legislation to allow companies and individuals alike to take advantage of approved tax dodges. And takes newbies like Saverin who speak too clearly to pay for it. (okay, we have all those expats with trailers in Mexico to grab as well, but normally they just have a few pesos stuffed in their pillows - with Saverin we've reached paydirt)

So hopefully Saverin can see the wisdom of our tax code and our opportunistic Congressional posturing to have him pay his fair share, to quote The Shining, "forever... and ever... and ever....". It is an election year after all, and in these years we're able to harness our political and media warriors to focus down on the craven irrational self-interest that drives our most important decisions. Other years, we can't be bothered, as we're too busy counting the dough and taking fact finding trips to Jamaica.

When Corporations Renounce Citizenship...

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:51:15 +0000

If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, who brings it a pillow?

Eduardo Saverin seems to have upset some in Congress, who have put down their bribes and chit sheets long enough to grasp patriotism by both lapels, screaming:

"someone's trying to avoid taxes!!!"

Of course even the President says his goal is to lower taxes, so you'd think this would be a shared national priority, kinda like watching "Dancing With the Stars".

I thought loopholes were written to be used - how else would accountants support themselves?

Though our good Congresspeople have decided they'll charge suspected tax exiles at twice the going rate. (Note that tax exiles would have to pay tax on US-earned income anyway, but we can put an arbitrary price on thinking they're having fun).

So how about all those corporations dodging taxes by leaving money overseas? GE for one is excellent at avoiding most taxes, but there are lots of aspirants. And every few years Congress obligingly hands out an amnesty to bring those tax dollars down at bargain basement rates - but don't try this as an individual. Corporations may be people too, but they're the people who drive Lamborghinis, not Ford Escorts.

And Apple keeps an office in Reno, not just to watch him die, but to avoid taxes in California by funneling as much business throw low-cost Nevada, even though I've never seen an Apple press release come out "Cupertino, Nevada".

Our good outraged Congresspeople note Saverin got good value out of his citizenship. Though he could have gone to Stanford as a foreigner, and he was already wealthy, so his investment in Facebook would have been just that - an overseas investment. (Saverin didn't really build the business - that was Zuck & the others - he just provided equipment)

Saverin wasn't even a citizen for his first 6-7 years in the US.

But there's a conceit we have - that everyone in the world is just dying to get to America, and couldn't possibly want to live somewhere else except to dodge their fair share.

Except I've known several people who tore up their green cards just because home was less boring than the US.

In any case, if Saverin had just incorporated himself and moved offshore as a tax dodge, no one would have noticed.

And with the rise of pain-in-the-ass reporting procedures like FBAR and FATCA, that will be a good move indeed. Because those laws would make it difficult for Saverin to invest in anything but a US bank while living in Singapore. Why? we've made reporting so draconian, other countries don't want to deal with us. Way to go guys.

Have more than $10k *COMBINED* in banks - which is kinda what you need to live anywhere abroad - you have to report. And your banks have to report. And if you invest, the investee has to report. It all gets grand.

But we talk about trimming back reporting requirements on business - it lowers productivity, you know.

Fuck it. We should all just incorporate ourselves and be done with it. Otherwise we won't have any rights.

Americans Have Three Choices In November: Bushbamney, Third-Party or Nobody

ironboltbruce — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:19:17 +0000

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results - like voting on false choices in rigged elections with predetermined outcomes.

AMERICANS HAVE THREE CHOICES IN NOVEMBER: BUSHBAMNEY, THIRD-PARTY OR NOBODY

As they've done so many times in the past, on Tuesday 6 November 2012 American voters will go to the polls to decide absolutely nothing. At least not at the presidential level, where electing either corporate-controlled Democratic puppet Obama or corporate-controlled Republican puppet Romney will mean a continuation of perpetual wars for profit and oil abroad and continued constitutional erosion and decline into police-state fascism at home:

http://tinyurl.com/7ybcu7m

Of course they supposedly differ on social and other wedge issues the ruling elite contrive, revive and broadcast incessantly through mainstream media to keep people divided and fighting each other rather united and fighting them. But once they get elected, what really changes?

NOT MUCH.

After two disastrous terms with Dubya, Obama was sold to the Sheeple as "Change" incarnate in 2008. But what really changed? Goldman Sachs alum were in charge at the Treasury under Bush; Goldman Sachs alum are in charge at the Treasury now... Wall Street got bailed out while Main Street got sold out under Bush; that continues under Obama, but now we call it a "jobless recovery"... Our Military/Intelligence/Terrorism Industrial Complex had a blank check under Bush. Our Military/Intelligence/Terrorism Industrial Complex has a blank check now... In Iraq, hundreds of thousands died and trillions of dollars were wasted *after* Dubya declared "Mission Accomplished"; the death and destruction continues today, long *after* Obama declared our troops would be "home for the holidays"... Under Bush, we went to war in Afghanistan with Pakistan as our "ally"; under Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama the war has expanded, the situation has worsened, and American bombs and drones are now killing innocent civilians on both sides of the Af-Pak border and around the globe as well... Dubya gave us the USA Patriot Act and AUMF 2001, under which he declared executive authority to waive habeus corpus and hold American citizens in indefinite detention without charge or trial; Obama renewed the Patriot Act and signed NDAA 2012, which codified indefinite detention of American citizens by military as well as civilian authorities... Dubya filled Guantanamo with 9/11 scapegoats; Obama's complicity guarantees none of them will ever get their day in open court... Dubya and Darth first used armed Predator drones to take out suspected terrorists - or innocent men, women and children asleep in their mud huts - in Af-Pak in 2001; Obama signed HR 658 releasing 30,000 such drones into American skies... Dubya used "free speech zones" to corral and avoid American citizens exercising their First Amendment Rights; Obama signed HR 347, making the exercise of those rights where and how it matters most a felony...

I COULD GO ON, BUT YOU GET THE POINT.

It is said that the Republican Party exists to make the Democratic Party look like a viable alternative to wannabe revolutionaries who don't really wanna be revolutionaries. But does it? Clearly the Democrats and Republicans have the same core agenda and answer to the same global elite, so voting for the candidates of either merely perpetuates their "two-party tyranny":

http://tinyurl.com/6om5ckt

So short of storming the Bastille, what options remain for the few Americans who actually give a damn about something other than sports scores, spoiled celebrities, (un)reality shows, choice-limiting apps for their slave-built iPhones and inconsequential updates to their Fakebook pages? Writing for Global Research, Professor Peter Phillips credits Chris Hedges with this suggestion:

"Don't waste any more time or energy on the presidential election than it takes to get to your polling station and pull a lever for a third-party candidate - just enough to register your obstruction and defiance - and then get back out onto the street. That is where the question of real power is being decided."

http://tinyurl.com/6oqj9yy

Others will say "Vote for Nobody!" in alignment with Wally Conger's Anti-Electorate Manifesto:

"We, the Anti-Electorate, do not believe there is a need for 'strong leadership' in government. We are not drawn to 'intellectual' authorities and political 'heroes'. We are not impressed with titles, ranks, and pecking orders - politicians, celebrities, and gurus. We do not struggle for control of organizations, social circles, and government. We do not lobby the State for favors or permission to control those with whom we disagree. Rather, we advocate freedom. By its very nature, the State does not. Exercise your right to say "No" to the warfare - welfare system. Refuse to vote. Then tell your friends why."

http://www.anti-politics.ws/

Still others are asking themselves what Thomas Jefferson would do if he were alive to see what a mess we've made of things, and these words of his are really making the rounds:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Personally, I'd like to see us get to what I previously called "that point":

"The traditional Left/Right, Liberal/Conservative, Democrat/Republican dichotomy is a false and failing paradigm propagated by the powers-that-be to perpetuate division. The true political spectrum is not a straight line but a circle: There is a point where Far Left meets Far Right, where Anarchism merges with Libertarianism and these and the rest of our outmoded labels melt away. In that point must we place our hope, for only from that point can we build a better future."

If we can't get to "that point", then storming the Bastille may be the only alternative.

NO MORE LEFT. NO MORE RIGHT. TIME TO UNITE. STAND AND FIGHT!

IronBoltBruce via VVV PR ( http://veritasvirtualvengeance.com | @vvvpr )

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Blacks, Gays and Obama: Changing Racial Politics In America

Orion — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:37:19 +0000

Several years back, minorities became the majority of births in Texas. That trend has gone nationwide as America as a whole has reflected what occurred in Texas:

America hit a demographic milestone last year, with new census figures showing for the first time more than half the children born in the U.S. were minorities.

That percentage just barely eked over the halfway mark, with minorities making up 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the 12-month period ending July 2011. But it marks a steady trend -- minorities represented 37 percent of births in 1990.

As a whole, the nation's minority population continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the total U.S. population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years.

Believe it or not, this big demographic news reflects President Obama's decision to endorse same-sex marriage. Alex Knepper, a freelance writer who I have mentioned in previous articles here, took to his Facebook page and noted "urban callers" who took to the phones and said some horrible stuff about Obama and his affront on traditional marriage. Knepper noted that "urban callers" obviously meant "black" and that gay couples are often fearful of stepping foot in black neighborhoods, which are hostile to their lifestyle choice.

The really interesting thing about all of this is that Alex Knepper may not be just uniquely himself. He may not be that much of a contrarian in this regard. Racial and sectarian politics in the United States is going to better reflect our society - and, for the most part, there isn't really a conflict going on like that seen in Mississippi Burning.

What you have now looks a whole lot different - you have a society in which whites are now increasingly a minority. With that comes the minority politics that Genghis wrote so much about in his politics - it becomes increasingly easy and justifiable to talk about your identity (surely you've noticed alot more white people talking about being "white" since Obama was elected) when your identity seems under attack. You no longer have to justify a history of dominance when you are no longer the one doing the domination. Whites who are increasingly viewing themselves as under threat are sounding just like a declining minority group because they are one.

Knepper falls in to all of this because he is (and I really hope this is fair to him) representing white cosmopolitan culture. His natural contrarianism makes it really easy to point out homophobia in black culture (despite the fact that there are readily quite a few black gays and white homophobes) and probably overemphasize the political power and influence of religious black Americans.

Politically, it may be really difficult for conservatives to win an election as the "white party." It may have a surprising sustainability, however, against a Democratic party that has a black man named Barack Obama at its head. George W. Bush's tactic of increasing the minorities in his cabinet in order to win over enough black and Hispanic voters to win re-election simply isn't going to work again when the Democratic Party looks the way that it currently looks.

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH . . . S**T!

bslev — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:18:12 +0000

One of the pleasant manifestations of my own encounter with the aging process is that I still look forward to delving into the paper paper that magically appears outside of our apartment door on weekdays. My three older children, all far more literate than their aging Dad, rarely if ever even think of reading a paper made of paper. I have reminded them now and then that there are real working people depending on that paper paper, to which the most cogent response I get has something to do with the color green and something about the environment.

But, as usual, this curmudgeon in wait digresses yet again--my wife claims I am the only one in the world who is 52 and going on 80. This blog is about what I've read this morning, and there is no need for caffeine to get me going today.

First, I was inspired by two op-ed columns in the back of today's New York Times, which is where I tend to begin my perusal. Nicholas Kristof's column, which I generally find to be too preachy, absolutely blew me away. He quotes from essays he received from teenage girls from all around the country about what bullying has done to them, and it just breaks your heart and you feel their pain and I want to find the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil parents of these bullies and learn them a thing or two big-time.

And then to the left of Kristof's piece there is that brave and still-presiding state court judge in New York, the Honorable Gustin L. Reichbach, who describes his ongoing battles with the terminal cancer in his pancreas, and tells us that it is only with a few puffs of reefer that he is able to mitigate the nausea he lives with 24/7 so that he can eat a few mouthfuls of food or get a little sleep. He implores the New York State Legislature--which he lauds and which I tell you is an embarrassment to this great state across party lines--to overcome petty politics and legalize the drug for folks like him. And I feel his pain (hardly but I do get it) and I can only hope and pray that he moves others, those who really matter and can do something.

And then there are two more stories on the front page which prompts this blog. First, it is front-page news that last year, and I believe for the first time ever, less than half of the Americans born were non-Hispanic whites. The demographics of this country are changing and forever and it's all good says this child of an immigrant past. But you can hear the rumblings--indeed it is loud and clear--from the Pat Buchanans of the world (why was he on MSNBC?) and their followers in the sewer that is the ongoing racism of this nation I still manage to love and cherish with all my heart.

Finally, there is yet another piece of tangible proof of what it means to elect a Bush over a Gore or a Romney over an Obama. The Bush Supreme Court's Citizens United case brings us the Super PACs, and with those PACs comes the filth that makes ordinary filthy politics look absolutely pristine. The Times got a hold of a proposal made to some conservative billionaire named Joe Ricketts, who is apparently contemplating an election campaign based on the fact that President Obama went to Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church and got married there. Yes, that issue could come to the fore, because in the eyes of those proposing this strategy, McCain lost because he was too afraid to exploit this man of the cloth. Really? [Full disclosure--I wouldn't vote for Rev. Wright with your pencil but my son once took me to hear him speak at Northwestern University and I wrote a blog about it way back when. And some of you will recall how impressed I was.]

I hope my readers don't lose sight of the significance of the other pieces I write about this morning by focusing on my less than hidden pitch for one more Obama term. I do understand that this is, for the most part, a political website. But each piece stands on its own--each piece is critical. Read them and think and let's chat.

And all this and I'm not even dressed yet (and no I will not tell you what I'm wearing)!

Bruce S. Levine

New York, New York