Standard & Poors, the same credit rating agency that gave AAA ratings to Enron just a few days before it went bust, the same tool of Wall Street that said subprime mortgage-backed securities were just dandy investments, now runs the United States. Actually, Wall Street and the "jittery investors" and the profit-bloated corporations run the United States, and S&P is just the messenger. Either you lower the deficit by four trillion at the same time you raise the debt ceiling, or we will give you a bad score, USA! The four trillion in cuts, of course, is the same figure Obama has proffered to the Republicans, with no urging from them at all.
He said he wanted a Grand Bargain with revenues, but the latest scuttlebut this morning is that Harry Reid agreed to a 2.7 trillion cut with no revenues. And the world is ending, so President Obama will have no choice but to "cave" to the GOP yet again. And he'll claim he is a responsible adult for doing so, and that he must now be re-elected as the hero who allowed Grandma to get her social security check this month.
This is all pre-arranged bullshit, of course. His only goal is his own re-election and to hell with the Depression and 20 percent real unemployment and actual people. It'll be interesting to see what he will campaign on now. The Joy of Suffering? Masochism for the Masses?
I'd love to see a contingent of congressional Democrats converging on the White House to inform the president that he no longer enjoys support from his own party and should give up seeking a second term. In my dreams of course.
Let's start another thread. The situation will likely be changing by the hour. It's all part of Kabuki Suspense Armageddon Theater, and we're just the little people in the peanut gallery.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Imagine......
David Brooks probably thought he was cleverly channeling John Lennon in his New York Times column today. He could barely contain his glee in his latest screed, titled "The Grand Bargain Lives!"
ImagineI really should stop reading Bobo. I don't have a blood pressure cuff in the house, but if I did it would have exploded. I fired off a response, and The Times in its infinite wisdom is holding it in the censorship bin***. I guess they are afraid it might cause the underarms of David's Brooks Brothers shirt to dampen with odorless dew.... not that he actually reads any of the comments. His glasses would shatter.there's no heavenyou’re a member of Congress. You have your own preferred way toscrew your constituentsreduce debt. If you’re a Democrat, it probably involves protectingyour own sorry assesMedicare and raising taxes. If you’re a Republican, it probably involves cuttingthe throats of the massesspending,killingreforming Medicare and keeping taxesimaginarylow....
.....You are being asked to support a foggy approach, not a specific plan. You are being asked to do this even though you have no faith in the other party and limited faith in the leadership of your own. You are being asked to risk your political life for an approach that bears little resemblance to what you would ideally prefer.
Do you do this? I think you do.
You do it because all the other options are worse. Doing nothing could lead to default and the end of The OligarchyAmerican economic supremacy.*
Dear David......
Imagine you're a member of the dwindling middle class, you have junk or no health insurance, and you are facing wage cuts while your boss expects you to do twice the work. Imagine you face a choice between paying your rent or your electric bill this month. Imagine you're a jobless 62-year-old widow counting the days for your Medicare and Social Security benefits to kick in and hope against hope you don't get sick for the next three years. Imagine you're an elementary school student whose house just got foreclosed because your father lost his job and now you all have to live in a seedy motel. Imagine when you go back to school in the fall, your class size has grown to 50 because the district just laid off a thousand teachers. Imagine that you turn on your TV (assuming you still have cable) and you see some empty suit spewing nonsense about a Grand Bargain. Imagine if you or a family member depends on a paltry Social Security check and the president you elected cavalierly now declares that check may just not make it on the 3rd of the month. And just go eat your peas and suffer with joy.
Imagine if you will that the Beltway pundits and the politicians they cheerlead had to change places with the real Americans. Would you care about the deficit and the debt ceiling then? Somehow, I doubt it. Would you re-elect any of the politicians who are literally pulling the rug out from under millions of people? I doubt that too.
So live on in your dream world and consider that the real people, the genuine human beings in this country, have run out of options. And then write another fun column about The Grand Bargain, and see if anyone cares.
Love, Karen **
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| Get Out the Wire Hangers and Clean This Mess Up! |
* Vetted and approved by the White HouseMinistry of TruthOffice of Public Engagement.
** Cross-posted on "Off Times Square", RealityChex.com
*** Cross-posted much later by NYT Comment Moderators upon surviving the vetting process after all. I apologize for the redundancies!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
A Possible Organic Explanation for Michele Bachmann
I had an ah-ha moment today when I read about the Michele Bachmann migraine revelation. I don't pretend to be a diagnostician, but I have read my Oliver Sacks and I know some sufferers. What is fascinating about this neurological disorder is the pre-migraine "aura" experienced by many victims. It has been described variously as a dream-like, religious experience or an LSD-like episode replete with visuals. It may even be neurologically related to the "white light" phenomenon of the near-death experience, leading some people to embrace religion after coming back from the great beyond.
Bachmann has previously described a dream of God telling her to run for office. The apostle Paul may have been undergoing a migraine aura when he suffered his sudden blindness and then had his vision of Jesus telling him to go forth. The medieval mystic nun Hildegard of Bingen apparently tripped on so-called "scintillating scotoma" before her own blinding pain hit.
In a poem called "God Speaks to Me in Headache" LoveMinus0 writes:
Something to think about. I now find myself actually empathizing with Michele Bachmann. My desire to see her not become president has nothing to do with her health issues. And whatever Rovian smear campaign that has sprung up accusing her of being some kind of drug addict is pretty despicable.
Bachmann has previously described a dream of God telling her to run for office. The apostle Paul may have been undergoing a migraine aura when he suffered his sudden blindness and then had his vision of Jesus telling him to go forth. The medieval mystic nun Hildegard of Bingen apparently tripped on so-called "scintillating scotoma" before her own blinding pain hit.
In a poem called "God Speaks to Me in Headache" LoveMinus0 writes:
When I get a migraine, I feel fundamentally religiousAnd beyond the mysticism of the aura, migraine sufferer Joan Didion writes: “There certainly is what doctors call a ‘migraine personality,’ and that personality tends to be ambitious, inward, intolerant of error, rather rigidly organized, perfectionist."
and drop to my knees in the pre-formatted position
for prayer: forgiveness, relief and reconciliation.
My temple is filled with holy resonance
and spiritual compression; eyes shut - doors sealed.
Hands grasp desperately over my ears, searching for
The Door.....
Something to think about. I now find myself actually empathizing with Michele Bachmann. My desire to see her not become president has nothing to do with her health issues. And whatever Rovian smear campaign that has sprung up accusing her of being some kind of drug addict is pretty despicable.
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| Hildegard of Bingen's Migraine |
Ummm.... It IS the Economy, Stupid
New York Times economy writer David Leonhardt, falling in line with the Administration's full court PR charm offensive on "How to Share the Sacrifice and Learn to Love It", has written a piece on how Team Obama thinks it can win even though the economy stinks. (Thanks, "DraftSpitzer", for sending the link).
Another article in today's Times today gushes how "buoyed" Obama is now that there is some real bipartishit coming out of Congress. Apparently, the fact that the Uniparty can agree to impose suffering on the masses and enrich the corporations is cause for celebration. As long as it puts the president in a good mood, what more could we peasants ask for? To further lift him out of his doldrums, the aptly named Moody's is walking back its Debt Ceiling Doom rating threat.
The "Headwind" headline is ripped straight from the obsessive-compulsive brain of whatever White House PR hack writes the speeches. The president can't get enough of the temporary headwinds buffeting the economy and which, of course, are merely passing zephyrs in his Panglossian world vision --- the Japanese earthquake is still sending shock waves across the ocean, says he. Then there are those rising gas prices, which actually started falling even before he unnecessarily released the oil reserves. And those misleading, increasing unemployment numbers, which are always flukes and always so much shockingly higher than expected, even though teachers by the thousands are being laid off this summer, when school's out and nobody notices.
But this excerpt is the real giveaway that Leonhardt's piece came indirectly fromOrwell's Ministry of Truth the Obama '12 machine:
Nowhere in his article does Leonhardt mention the pushback against Obama from his former supporters. As of 7:30 a.m. today, all 19 reader comments posted to the Leonhardt story were Obama-negatives from the usual liberal crowd. And not one clothespin (hold your nose, lesser of two evils) voter among them. More and more, it's not the Economy Stupide. It's the fact that a Democratic president is thinking about cutting Social Security and Medicare and other domestic programs during what is increasingly looking like a Long Depression.
Another article in today's Times today gushes how "buoyed" Obama is now that there is some real bipartishit coming out of Congress. Apparently, the fact that the Uniparty can agree to impose suffering on the masses and enrich the corporations is cause for celebration. As long as it puts the president in a good mood, what more could we peasants ask for? To further lift him out of his doldrums, the aptly named Moody's is walking back its Debt Ceiling Doom rating threat.
The "Headwind" headline is ripped straight from the obsessive-compulsive brain of whatever White House PR hack writes the speeches. The president can't get enough of the temporary headwinds buffeting the economy and which, of course, are merely passing zephyrs in his Panglossian world vision --- the Japanese earthquake is still sending shock waves across the ocean, says he. Then there are those rising gas prices, which actually started falling even before he unnecessarily released the oil reserves. And those misleading, increasing unemployment numbers, which are always flukes and always so much shockingly higher than expected, even though teachers by the thousands are being laid off this summer, when school's out and nobody notices.
But this excerpt is the real giveaway that Leonhardt's piece came indirectly from
The clearest statement of this idea has come from David Plouffe, Mr. Obama’s top political adviser. “The average American does not view the economy through the prism of G.D.P. or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers,” Mr. Plouffe said at a recent Bloomberg Breakfast here. “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?’ ”Actually, it wasn't the Republicans who first seized upon Plouffe's ham-handed bluster. The Progressive blogosphere glommed onto it first. A recent phenomenon I have noticed is that whenever liberals take Obama to task for his latest outbreak of conservativism, Republicans seize upon the criticism, making Obama their instant victim without having to expend much effort themselves. Not much we can do about that, except to say over and over again to David Brooks and William Kristol and Charles Krauthhammer: Take him -- he's yours! He wants to rip up the social safety net as much as you do. He is embracing the latest Baby Grand (son of big Grand) Bargain from the Gang of Six or Seven even though he hasn't even read the thing yet. It is still in its fetal stage: two pages of bullet points.
Not surprisingly, Republicans seized on the comment to say the White House was out of touch. They are preparing to follow the path of not only Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign, but also — in slogans, if not policies — Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, which coined “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Nowhere in his article does Leonhardt mention the pushback against Obama from his former supporters. As of 7:30 a.m. today, all 19 reader comments posted to the Leonhardt story were Obama-negatives from the usual liberal crowd. And not one clothespin (hold your nose, lesser of two evils) voter among them. More and more, it's not the Economy Stupide. It's the fact that a Democratic president is thinking about cutting Social Security and Medicare and other domestic programs during what is increasingly looking like a Long Depression.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Confidence Fairytale Theater
Obama pal David Cote, the multimillionaire union-busting CEO of the criminally convicted polluter Honeywell International, went on "Meet the Press" yesterday to talk about his lack of confidence. He's hoarding his record obscene profits, he says, because he is just too uncertain about the future. In order to Win the Future like his president wants, he has to have reassurances from government that it'll find a way to not tax his company's offshore billions and also do something about all that annoying regulation. The multimillions in fines from his record number of SuperFund toxic waste sites and the radioactive sludge episode have left him feeling mighty unconfident.
Since the topic of the Sunday talk fest was Jobs and the Economy, the alleged moderator (David Gregory) didn't bother asking Cote (which Gregory pronounced "Cootie") about his lockout of whistleblowing unions and his company's recent criminal conviction. Nobody in the mainstream media has ever challenged him about this. Gregory eagerly asked, "Are politics unable to meet the challenges we (meaning corporations) face?"
From the transcript, Cote's reply:
Cote, who is a Republican, was supposed to have gotten his chance to ask not what he can do for his country, but what his country can do for him, at a special lunch with Democratic senators a few weeks ago. But then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois Sen.Dick Durbin got a letter from the President of the United Steelworkers Union:
The meeting was subsequently cancelled. But Durbin, whose constituents include those locked-out workers, also appeared on "Meet the Press" Sunday. Although he was in a different segment than Cote (with whom he also served on the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction "Catfood" Commission) I like to imagine that the two of them met in the Green Room and exchanged pleasantries. Both of them wholeheartedly agree, by the way, that Social Security needs to be "fixed."
From the Durbin interview transcript, words evidently failed him as he choked up recounting the consensual awesomeness of Obama:
Since the topic of the Sunday talk fest was Jobs and the Economy, the alleged moderator (David Gregory) didn't bother asking Cote (which Gregory pronounced "Cootie") about his lockout of whistleblowing unions and his company's recent criminal conviction. Nobody in the mainstream media has ever challenged him about this. Gregory eagerly asked, "Are politics unable to meet the challenges we (meaning corporations) face?"
From the transcript, Cote's reply:
It's the sort of thing that scares me is -- we're -- I'm -- Honeywell 's a global company , 37 billion in sales, got 130,000 people, half our sales and people outside the USA. Traveled the world a lot and the world has changed, we went from a billion participants in the global economy to four billion over the last 20 years, yet we still act like we did 20 years ago. And we need an American competitiveness agenda that gets our finances right, gets energy policy , math and science education , infrastructure, and we can't even do something like this. It's very scary as a businessman.And later.....
I always find it interesting when I hear government say "We need to create jobs." And I say, "No, actually, government doesn't create jobs. Government can create an environment where jobs can be created. And I think it's important to distinguish between the two."
Cote, who is a Republican, was supposed to have gotten his chance to ask not what he can do for his country, but what his country can do for him, at a special lunch with Democratic senators a few weeks ago. But then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois Sen.Dick Durbin got a letter from the President of the United Steelworkers Union:
Honeywell - one of the nation’s largest multinationals - would seem a poor choice for such a discussion since the Company has engaged in a lockout of 228 USW members at Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois since June 2010, seeking drastic concessions from our members. For years this Honeywell facility has put USW members and the community at risk innumerable times because of multiple health and safety standard violations cited by OSHA, the NRC and the EPA. If CEO Cote really desires to create jobs in the U.S. he could immediately create 228 good paying jobs by simply ending this disastrous lockout of our members in Metropolis, Illinois.
The meeting was subsequently cancelled. But Durbin, whose constituents include those locked-out workers, also appeared on "Meet the Press" Sunday. Although he was in a different segment than Cote (with whom he also served on the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Reduction "Catfood" Commission) I like to imagine that the two of them met in the Green Room and exchanged pleasantries. Both of them wholeheartedly agree, by the way, that Social Security needs to be "fixed."
From the Durbin interview transcript, words evidently failed him as he choked up recounting the consensual awesomeness of Obama:
SEN. DURBIN:
David, let me tell you, if you could've been in the White House Cabinet Room , as I was, for six separate meetings and watched this president of the United States patiently listen to each member of the leadership in Congress lay out their ideas of where to go and how we can do this together, if you know that he started the meeting saying, "I'm putting everything on the table so that we can have a reasonable, comprehensive approach to it," you saw real leadership in action. I can't think of another president in my memory...
MR. GREGORY:
Mm-hmm.
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| "It's Very Scary as a Businessman".... Now Eat Your Peas, Pod People! |
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Friday Night Massacre, Obama-Style
In a Friday night leak designed to garner the least possible amount of attention, an unnamed White House source not authorized to speak even though he was absolutely directed to speak by his boss, has announced what we were all pretty much expecting: Elizabeth Warren is out as chief of the consumer protection agency she herself created.
Now that he has embraced cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and the wrath of his base is sliding like water off his thick-skinned teflon persona , why not go in for the kill and stab the progressive community one more time for good measure, while they are still reeling from the shock of the past week. And do it at arm's length, of course, right at the start of a summer weekend.
Now that he has embraced cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and the wrath of his base is sliding like water off his thick-skinned teflon persona , why not go in for the kill and stab the progressive community one more time for good measure, while they are still reeling from the shock of the past week. And do it at arm's length, of course, right at the start of a summer weekend.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Equal Opportunity Pain
I haven't been able to find an official transcript of President Obama's press conference yet, but here are some salient points that managed to find their way into my numbed and disbelieving brain:
-- The shared sacrifice mantra. We can't ask the "less fortunate" to suffer even more without asking the millionaires and billionaires to also suffer just a tad. Because misery loves company. And if Grandma has to endure starvation and eviction and want, then Billionaire Corporate Jet Owner should have to pay "just a little more" to pretend we are all fellow travelers in this Great Journey of Austerity. Again, Obama reminds us that as a wealthy fellow himself, he too will be selflessly paying a little bit more. So everybody shut the hell up and suffer with joy.
-- The false family-government equivalence, again. " A family doesn't run up a credit card bill because otherwise they can't send Junior to college or fix the boiler.... so neither should the government". Bullshitsky. Families can't print money or sell their debt to China.
-- If we Do Something Big It Will Send a Signal. A signal to whom? He didn't say. The mythical fence-sitting independent voters of the Heartland? Nah. Wall Street and corporations making about a third more in obscene profits this quarter and thus are so skittish they're afraid to hire? Yep.
--" I am willing to let my base hate me, so the Republicans should just welcome their base's hatred too." Because even corrupt politicians can totally embrace the misery-loves-company meme? No. Obama doesn't care about Democratic voters because they will hold their noses and pick him over Michele Bachmann. Republicans do care about their base, because it's made up in equal parts of crazy Tea Partiers and K Street lobbyists. More proof that Obama is the antithesis of FDR, who welcomed the hatred of the bankers and was thus labeled a "traitor to his class." Obama kisses the feet of the base bankers who basically are his new base.
--" I am still puzzled by the Republican pattern of voting against all my proposals". Ever heard the word disingenuous, Mr. O? But wait, he also said he never reads articles or watches news shows about himself, so I guess he has virtually no clue about the reality of anything. He said he has a thick skin so the articles he never reads have no effect on him anyway. He has no idea that Mitch McConnell has said the GOP's sole goal is that he not be given a second term. Because he doesn't watch TV. He has no idea.....
-- We should be sure that current beneficiaries of Social Security, "as much as possible", are not effected by changes to the program. So current recipients may be affected just a little and future ones a lot? How very reassuring. Raising the retirement age is just one of many measures that are on the table. No specifics, of course. He is open to means-testing Medicare. He again refers to his own looming 50th birthday and golly, he is going to be getting his AARP card soon, and yep, he's one of those millionaires who might have to be means-tested! (He fails to mention that his health care needs, present and future, will be taken care of by a VIP retirement/benefits package shared by all the miscreants of Congress). But the stenographic press corps chuckles appreciately anyway.
-- Chuck Todd marks the 493rd time he has been called on to the exclusion of 99 percent of the other reporters in the room. Jake Tapper may be tied with him. I don't know.
Did I leave anything out?
-- The shared sacrifice mantra. We can't ask the "less fortunate" to suffer even more without asking the millionaires and billionaires to also suffer just a tad. Because misery loves company. And if Grandma has to endure starvation and eviction and want, then Billionaire Corporate Jet Owner should have to pay "just a little more" to pretend we are all fellow travelers in this Great Journey of Austerity. Again, Obama reminds us that as a wealthy fellow himself, he too will be selflessly paying a little bit more. So everybody shut the hell up and suffer with joy.
-- The false family-government equivalence, again. " A family doesn't run up a credit card bill because otherwise they can't send Junior to college or fix the boiler.... so neither should the government". Bullshitsky. Families can't print money or sell their debt to China.
-- If we Do Something Big It Will Send a Signal. A signal to whom? He didn't say. The mythical fence-sitting independent voters of the Heartland? Nah. Wall Street and corporations making about a third more in obscene profits this quarter and thus are so skittish they're afraid to hire? Yep.
--" I am willing to let my base hate me, so the Republicans should just welcome their base's hatred too." Because even corrupt politicians can totally embrace the misery-loves-company meme? No. Obama doesn't care about Democratic voters because they will hold their noses and pick him over Michele Bachmann. Republicans do care about their base, because it's made up in equal parts of crazy Tea Partiers and K Street lobbyists. More proof that Obama is the antithesis of FDR, who welcomed the hatred of the bankers and was thus labeled a "traitor to his class." Obama kisses the feet of the base bankers who basically are his new base.
--" I am still puzzled by the Republican pattern of voting against all my proposals". Ever heard the word disingenuous, Mr. O? But wait, he also said he never reads articles or watches news shows about himself, so I guess he has virtually no clue about the reality of anything. He said he has a thick skin so the articles he never reads have no effect on him anyway. He has no idea that Mitch McConnell has said the GOP's sole goal is that he not be given a second term. Because he doesn't watch TV. He has no idea.....
-- We should be sure that current beneficiaries of Social Security, "as much as possible", are not effected by changes to the program. So current recipients may be affected just a little and future ones a lot? How very reassuring. Raising the retirement age is just one of many measures that are on the table. No specifics, of course. He is open to means-testing Medicare. He again refers to his own looming 50th birthday and golly, he is going to be getting his AARP card soon, and yep, he's one of those millionaires who might have to be means-tested! (He fails to mention that his health care needs, present and future, will be taken care of by a VIP retirement/benefits package shared by all the miscreants of Congress). But the stenographic press corps chuckles appreciately anyway.
-- Chuck Todd marks the 493rd time he has been called on to the exclusion of 99 percent of the other reporters in the room. Jake Tapper may be tied with him. I don't know.
Did I leave anything out?
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| Body Language Open to Interpretation (AP ) |
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