A Futuristic Movement of Monstrous Proportions

Barack and Michelle Obama today announced they are combining their theme songs -- "Winning the Future" and "Let's Move" into one all-purpose slogan in keeping with the current austerity campaign to trim government waste.

The President wants to Win the Future by investing in green jobs -- preferably low-wage and non-union, so we can out-compete the rest of the Third World.  Michelle wants us to eat less and exercise more.  As the President is so fond of obsessively and fallaciously saying, families and governments are exactly the same -- overweight slackers who need to tighten our belts.

So what if this month's spike in the unemployment rate is mainly due to the massive national layoffs of teachers and other public workers?  So what if boards of education throughout the land are being forced to shorten the school week to three or four days?  The kids are becoming nothing more than bloated desk potatoes anyway.  They need to get out more, stay healthy for the below-minimum wage jobs of the future. 

And what about those senior citizens?  Everybody knows your metabolism slows down as you get older. So that's why Obama and his Republican co-conspirators bipartisan negotiators have come up with the nifty idea of chained consumer price formulae.  Once you start collecting your Social Security -- if the politicians have their way, at around 68 or 70 -- you will oh so gradually see a decrease in  benefits.... say, about the cost of only a bite of that candy bar you know you don't really need, every single month for the rest of your life.  So if and when you make it to 95, you'll be as thin as a rail and down to only one meal a day on the few hundred a month you'll then be collecting.  You see, the President cares about your well-being.  He knows change is hard.  Father Knows Best.  ( And if you didn't sign his fatherhood pledge last month, you're just being a selfish ideologue.)

That's why the President is not sweating the rising unemployment rate.  The headwinds of the crappy economy are evaporating all his sweat, and they should be cooling you down too.  By Election Day, joblessness may be up to 13 percent -- but not to worry.  It's a structural thing, the new normal, and it's all according to plan.  The corporations really do want to keep jobs here, but they just don't have the confidence yet.  Wages here are still way too high.  Why pay somebody $8 an hour when they can get a Bangladeshi child to do the same thing for pennies?

The idea is to turn the United States into such a great Third World Country that other nations will start offshoring their jobs to us.  It's already happening in Sweden and the "right to work" (anti-union) state of Virginia:

Swedish corporate leaders, ironically, are now trying to exploit those wider U.S. gaps. IKEA pays its factory workers in Sweden a minimum $19 an hour. In Virginia, IKEA workers doing the same exact work start at $8. IKEA looks on the United States, local union organizer Bill Street matter-of-factly observed earlier this month, “the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico.” (Labor Notes).

Anti-immigration advocates love to complain that Mexicans cross the border to steal our low-paying restaurant and migrant farm jobs, have their anchor babies and grab up all our wonderful free health care.  How ironic that Mexico is a major medical tourism destination for Americans with no or crappy health coverage.  For example, the cost of a knee replacement in Mexico is $10.500 compared to $25,000 here. And there are recovery center options at seaside resorts, too.  Anyway, illegal immigration is actually slowing down because word is finally getting out in Mexico that the American economy really, really stinks. Again, all according to plan. Immigration reform legislation may not even be needed.

But I digress.  This is all a Grand Plan, for our own good.  The Social Safety Net is overrated.  We're just trapped in that net like a bunch of flailing fish who are too stupid to know what's good for us.  The President is going to slash that net and allow us to escape into the Deep, free at last.



Flagellation of the Willing





Unemployment Figures Won't Hurt Obama: David Plouffe

Okay, I was half-kidding when I called Obama "evil" in my last post.  But today I have a new diagnosis:  deluded sociopath.  The jobless figures just came out this morning, and as usual, they're worse than expected.  And if you're wondering why the Administration doesn't seem all that concerned, it's because they are in fact not at all concerned.

According to White House Advisor David Plouffe:

The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers. People won’t vote based on the unemployment rate, they’re going to vote based on: ‘How do I feel about my own situation? Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family? (Bloomberg News)

Translation: Americans are so selfish they are only in it for themselves.  Ask not what you can do for your country or fellow men, but ask what my President can do for the top two percent of wage earners, corporations, the Wall Street elites, and the Military-Industrial complex.  It'll all trickle down eventually.

Paul Krugman thinks we should be more aghast than usual at the new monthly report:

Almost no job creation, with slow private-sector growth offset by falling public-sector employment; a falling employment-population ratio; and (I don’t know how many people have picked this up), an actual decline in wages, albeit a small one.

The politicians are all buying into Reagan voodoo economics at this point, confident that cutting trillions from the budget will miraculously create the Confidence Fairy and inspire the money-hoarding tax-evading multinationals to create jobs, jobs, jobs.  They are wrong, wrong, wrong.  And I think they know it and just don't care.

Arriving Soon... From Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue

Yanking the Chain

Both the New York Times and The Washington Post have stories today on The Unthinkable.  Social Security is very much on the table, the once-sacred cow of all self-interested politicians is about to be butchered into chunks.  It's Big!  It's Sweeping! It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really do something huge to tackle the deficit!


The whole thing seems to be tied to something called the "chained Consumer Price Index" -- which would change the way, for instance, Social Security cost of living increases are determined.  Here and here are some explanations. In a nutshell, chained CPI would result in any beneficiaries making it to age 95 receiving such reduced benefits that they'll  either starve to death or wish for death. Judging from the controlled leaks coming from the semi-permeable budget negotiations, this proposed chained CPI would also have the effect of stealthily changing the tax code and raising billions more in revenue -- but apparently Republicans are having none of it, even if it means giving up the twisted David Brooks fantasy of getting rid of Granny so the grandkids can get theirs. 


This whole story may, after all, be nothing but a hot air balloon powered by the White House propaganda engine to make us all breathe a huge sigh of relief when it comes to pass that President Obama was only bluffing the Republicans, to be able show a grateful nation how craven and intransigent they truly are.... that they are such fools that they turned down his brave machete to save their precious corporate jet loophole.  He is trying to out-Tea Party the Tea Party, and still they aren't buying what he is selling.  Even David Brooks has been reduced to a quivering mass of fear. 

Still, the very fact that Social Security "improvement" is being bandied about at all, when it has nothing to do with the almighty deficit and the totally contrived debt crisis, should have us worried. The rumor I really want to be hearing is how the cap on FICA taxes is going to be raised above the current first $105,000 of income.  But I'll wait awhile before hitting the panic button and launching a full-scale attack on Obama for being the worst of all possible evils. Right now he is merely equivalently evil with None of the Above, Generic Republican, or Blank. 

** Update: From Bold Progressives, here is a petition to be delivered to Obama Campaign HQ in Chicago, with a handy box to write your own personal message, should you be so inclined. I was, I did. 

And thanks to James T. and Jay for the Glenn Greenwald heads-up.  Read it and weep. And realize that signing the petition above will make you feel better but will probably just cause gales of derisive laughter in Chi-town.

Polluted Politics

The CEO of a multinational conglomerate with one of the country's worst pollution records, and the perpetrator of one of the most egregiously punitive union lockouts in United States history, is now advising Senate Democrats on job creation.  Translation: he is going to tell a cadre of Senate Democrats how to make it easier for him and his corporate cohort to "stimulate" those ephemeral jobs by not raising taxes and maybe even cutting some taxes.  And the Senators might also want to ease some of those pesky environmental regulations that have resulted in the slew of fines and criminal convictions plaguing his company lately. Oh, and maybe he can whisper a few sweet nothings in their ears over dessert about that annoying union blowing the whistle on his illegal radioactive sludge storage last year, and who just can't take the hint and leave him the hell alone after being locked out of their jobs for over a year now.

David Cote, head honcho of Honeywell International, is actually being  deployed to tomorrow's lunch with the Dems by his buddy Barack Obama, just as he was deployed to the Cable TV news circuit to talk up the president's accomplishments this week, just as he was deployed to sit on the infamous Cat Food Commission to slash the social safety net, just as he was deployed to quell the rumblings from the United States Chamber of Commerce over health insurance reform, just as he was deployed to work with Health and Human Services to run a PR campaign on Medicare waste, just as he was deployed to travel with the president to India last year to help ship even more American jobs overseas. Cote has been described as one of the President's closest business advisors. 

(You can read my previous posts on the Obama-Cote connection here and here.) 

Honeywell is the number one political contributor in the country. According to labor journalist Mike Elk, it has increased its contributions by 400 percent since Obama took office in 2008.  It has received $13 billion in government contracts, mainly in defense, in the past 10 years.  Honeywell also has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of "Superfund" toxic waste sites in the country.

The company was convicted of a felony this spring for improperly storing radioactive waste at its Metropolis, IL uranium processing plant, and was ordered to pay a multimillion dollar fine.  No humans were convicted.  But if you thought this would have made them clean up their act, or have made even the slightest dent in their bottom line, you would be wrong.

Just two weeks ago, OSHA slapped the plant with still another fine  stemming from a release of dangerous gas from the plant. To add insult to injury, Honeywell further broke the law by barring federal investigators from inspecting the plant. 

Also about two weeks ago, Honeywell settled with environmental officials over its role in contaminating a large swath of Northern New Jersey with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium.  Along with Occidental Chemical and PPG Industries, Honeywell also agreed to accept responsibility for 42 other "orphan" sites contaminated with the pollutant. 

The Obama White House, from all indications or lack therof, has not addressed  the criminal convictions, the flaunting of the law, the pollution. But, according to Mike Elk, it has vehemently refused all comment on the union lockout in Metropolis, which just marked its first anniversary.  The national mainstream corporate media have not covered the Honeywell abuses, neither the labor aspect nor the pollution aspect.

And you might think that Obama critic, pollution victim, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie would be all over this Cote Connection with the White House.  Again, you would be wrong. Honeywell contributes to the GOP coffers too, hedging its bets like any good monolithic corporate person. And let's face it, the Republicans are simply not that into the environment.  Just ask Rick Perry of Toxic Texas.  Deep in the heart of Texas is a lot like deep in the heart of Jersey, where as the old song goes "even the flies can't breathe in the skies." So what's a little more chemical crud.

But there has been plenty of happy-talk news about how phenomenally well Honeywell is doing from an investment standpoint. Wall Street cheerleader Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money" today projected a big increase in profits for the company, which with all its many parts resembles a "beautiful mosaic". (my thought is a writhing mass of slimy snakes, but what do I know?) Zacks.com, a Forbes blog, is also waxing rhapsodic about Honeywell's skyrocketing and surprising growth and earnings. Look at the Honeywell charts, compare with the unemployment charts, and then ask yourself where on earth Cote will find the chutzpah to ask the Senate for more concessions, even as his government contracts continue pouring in during this Age of Contrived Austerity.

Besides profiting mightily from the ongoing Forever Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and parts unknown, Honeywell was recently awarded a $213 million government contract to expand the energy infrastructure at the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration outside of D.C.  The irony is literally dripping like the nuclear sludge leaching from those cheap containers in Metropolis into the ground and toward the Ohio River.



Cote Calls Shots from Presidential Podium as Obama Looks On



Real Citizens Unite

With both political parties now taking advantage of the Supreme Court "Citizens United" decision granting First Amendment rights to corporations and allowing for unlimited anonymous donations to fund political advertising, you just know Congress is going to do zilch to pass a law to overturn it.  But there is now a way you can add your name to a petition and find information on events in your own neck of the woods on how to get the ball rolling on a constitutional amendment declaring that money is not speech and corporations are not persons.

"Thanks to the hard work of local organizers," says Move to Amend's Kaitlin Sopoki Belknap, "Boulder, CO could become the next community to officially join this growing effort. Councilmember Macon Cowles is proposing to place a measure on the November ballot, giving Boulder voters the opportunity to support (the)  amendment."

Here is where to get involved  to help put human rights back where they belong: in human beings.  The reason you may not have heard of this group is because the corporate-controlled mainstream media just might not want you to --  and no self-respecting monolith will ever voluntarily give up its God Supreme Court-given right to personhood.  Time to show them what it feels like to be dehumanized.

The Allegory of the Wise Counselor

The following post was written by frequent commenter "Jay-Ottawa."


Lothario was a charmer and, as for Columbia, she was dazzled by the words he spun into dreams. Her dreams were his dreams. True, he made none of the dreams happen and he continued to see other women. Tall, dark, handsome and, oh, that smile and, oh, so cool, so different from all her other suitors. Lote promised everything, so Colie said ‘yes.’

Like other wives of men with vague business and pockets full of money, Colie did not ask questions. He met people behind closed doors. He hired people he once called crooks. He himself began doing things he had said should stop. Even on their honeymoon, he continued to see other women.

Within months of the honeymoon Colie’s allowance for the household began to shrink. When she spoke up, he beat her. Was she some kind of purist? He was doing the best he could under the circumstances. One day he gave away their first born, Socia Surity, to pay off an associate, and later sent her favorite, Medicah, into an apprenticeship for a friend who really wasn’t a friend. Colie complained some more, and Lote beat her some more, then cut off her allowance entirely.

To hope forever is hell. So Colie, now in rags, ran off to the last shelter in town. Its motto was: “Do Not Complain” -- or DNC for short. Winnie Poop, the head counselor, heard Colie’s story and told her to run back to Lote’s arms.

“Really?” Colie was incredulous.

“Be realistic,” said the counselor. “Can’t you see your future will be even more bleak apart from Lote? You will end up on welfare, lose the kids, and spend your last days under a bridge. Do you realize you need major party affiliation to secure the best spots under bridges? Lote was committed to you. Count the emails begging you to come back. That’s more than you can expect from most guys these days. Believe me, in these times, you should not depend on the kindness of strangers.

“With Lote, at least you’ll have three squares and a roof over your head. If you do fall ill, at least you’ll have your own bed to die on. Kiss the fist that strikes the blow; he might be shamed into pulling some future punch. Didn’t you say Lote was nice once in a while? When he kicks you, jump nimbly. You’ll come to appreciate the days he doesn’t batter. You could never achieve such intimacy with other guys.

“Just remember there are worse monsters out there. Their motto is ‘Indifference Yesterday, Indifference Today, Indifference Tomorrow, Indifference Forever.’ Lote’s your man. Don’t let him down. He gives you a good day once in a while. Go home. Look at it this way: Lote is the lesser of two evils.”

New Record: Obama Utters Four Reaganisms in One Paragraph

"I ran for President because I believed in an America where ordinary folks could get ahead; where if you worked hard, you could have a better life.  That’s been my focus since I came into office, and that has to be our focus now.  It’s one of the reasons why we’re working to reduce our nation’s deficit.  Government has to start living within its means, just like families do.  We have to cut the spending we can’t afford so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs.  
The good news is, Democrats and Republicans agree on the need to solve the problem".

-- Barack Obama, Weekly Radio Address, 7/2/11.

I despair.  The man is openly embracing all the mendacious conservative talking points of Reaganomics: 1) If you haven't achieved the American Dream, you just haven't worked hard enough; 2) The false equivalence between family budgets and government budgets; 3) The economy will grow if we starve it; and 4)The Confidence Fairy created through such starvation will transform profit-hoarding corporations into wondrous Tinker Belles who will tinkle their golden drops of beneficence on all the rest of us.  Yeah, that last part so totally worked out in the Bush Regime and its corporate welfare program, didn't it?
 
Of course, the radio address comes just one day after Obama apparently met his June fund-raising goals. According to the latest email from Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) chairman Jim Messina, a grand total of 475,000 rubes sent in their meager dollars and entered for a chance to win dinner with the president (and Biden).  So pay no attention to that pedagogic press con the other day, in which Obama pretended to chide his fellow Republicans.  The compulsive repetitive talking points of cutting out tax deductions for corporate jets and allowing a few subsidies to expire as planned are just crumbs to placate the pesky base.

The good news, according to the One, is not the fact that he is fighting back, but that Democrats and Republicans are agreeing on the same fake problem.  They are embracing the same fantasy, so all is right in Austeriana.  Watch the video of his address if you have a strong stomach.  He actually emphasizes the "TR" in the trillions he wants to cut.  Too bad he hasn't channelled the other TR -- the original progressive bull moose, who invented the Bully Pulpit, now gathering much dust.

The president appeared to have mounted it briefly this week, but he has jumped down in a hurry and is once again wallowing in the same bipartisan bullshit.

Slashing the Safety Net in Order to Save It