Health Care Deform
The Republican Party and its allies, the Health Insurance Companies and the Drug Industry are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to derail ANY reform of our healthcare system. They have two goals in mind:
(1) They want, desperately, to prevent the re-election of Obama by discrediting him and preventing him from keeping any of his campaign promises. Their desire is to see Sarah Palin, or someone like her, in the White House, and to regain control of the Congress.
(2) They also want to protect the profits of the Insurance and Drug companies, and to keep as many people as possible uninsured, insecure, and frightened, so they can
(3) appeal to the worst aspects of human nature: fear, selfishness and greed, now and in future elections.
Anyone who buys into their lies or passes them on to others is complicit in the ongoing destruction of our terminally ill “democracy.”
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
"Jobless Recovery"
The next person that uses the term "jobless recovery" in public needs to be remanded to a re-education camp. Where is Mao when we need him? It is hard to imagine a more damning indictment of the economics "profession" than their glib reminders (repeated regularly by our befuddled/brainwashed President) that "unemployment always lags behind an economic recovery. Hey idiots! When there are 16 -20 million jobless and who knows how many "uneremployed," THERE IS NO RECOVERY!
Those who have access to Harper's Magazine should check out an article in the latest issue by Kevin Baker, titled "Barack Hoover Obama. He seems to have been reading my mail. Instead of channeling FDR (as I suggested a year and a half ago in a letter published in the Progressive Populist), Obama is channeling Hoover! As Baker notes, "This approach looks like an exercise in democracy drawn from his hays as a community organizer, the sort of strategy that helps a neighborhood to decide whether it wnats, say, a health clinic or a youth center. What he doesn't care to acknowledge is that, in the case of the US Congess, he is dealing with a neighborhood where maybe half want a health clinic and the rest are holding out for grenade launchers and crystal meth." There is no middle gtround. He needs to use his manifest charisma to reach out to the American public and DEMAND that they DEMAND that Congress do its duty.
Today's Times has a piece by Barabara Ehrenreich that epitomizes the heartlessness and cruelty of our society. I have linked it, but not sure it will show up.
Those who have access to Harper's Magazine should check out an article in the latest issue by Kevin Baker, titled "Barack Hoover Obama. He seems to have been reading my mail. Instead of channeling FDR (as I suggested a year and a half ago in a letter published in the Progressive Populist), Obama is channeling Hoover! As Baker notes, "This approach looks like an exercise in democracy drawn from his hays as a community organizer, the sort of strategy that helps a neighborhood to decide whether it wnats, say, a health clinic or a youth center. What he doesn't care to acknowledge is that, in the case of the US Congess, he is dealing with a neighborhood where maybe half want a health clinic and the rest are holding out for grenade launchers and crystal meth." There is no middle gtround. He needs to use his manifest charisma to reach out to the American public and DEMAND that they DEMAND that Congress do its duty.
Today's Times has a piece by Barabara Ehrenreich that epitomizes the heartlessness and cruelty of our society. I have linked it, but not sure it will show up.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Conspiracy???
One of the most basic axioms of conspiracy theory is that a newly elected President is taken into a secure room, handed a large book and told to read it in order to find out the real job requirements. Lest there be any confusion about “conspiracy theory,” please note that the definition of a conspiracy theorist is “someone who believes that undemocratic people are trying to influence events behind the scene.” If you don’t believe that, you are a foolish simpleton. We can argue over who they may be and how successful they may have been, but it should be obvious to anyone that those who are mentally ill behind money and power will do anything to feed their addiction.
Which brings us to our new President. Apparently, Barack Obama was initiated almost immediately after his election, because his first response to the economic crisis was to gather around him a group of “economic advisors” who were the very people who led us into the mess in the first place.
Now that he has been in office for a while, we have two choices: either he was lying to us during his campaign for office, or that “book” left him no choice but to renege on all of his promises. The second choice does allow for the possibility that his “initiation” convinced him that failure to continue with business as usual would lead to a catastrophe such that history would remember him as the Captain when the ship of state hit the iceberg and sank to the bottom. Recent interviews with Bernanke (on “60 minutes”) and Geithner (on PBS News) made it clear that they have been telling him that all along.
There is no doubt whatsoever, though, that he has reneged on all of his promises. If you bother to follow the news, you know I’m right. If you don’t, then you don’t deserve to live in a putative democracy.
Which brings us to our new President. Apparently, Barack Obama was initiated almost immediately after his election, because his first response to the economic crisis was to gather around him a group of “economic advisors” who were the very people who led us into the mess in the first place.
Now that he has been in office for a while, we have two choices: either he was lying to us during his campaign for office, or that “book” left him no choice but to renege on all of his promises. The second choice does allow for the possibility that his “initiation” convinced him that failure to continue with business as usual would lead to a catastrophe such that history would remember him as the Captain when the ship of state hit the iceberg and sank to the bottom. Recent interviews with Bernanke (on “60 minutes”) and Geithner (on PBS News) made it clear that they have been telling him that all along.
There is no doubt whatsoever, though, that he has reneged on all of his promises. If you bother to follow the news, you know I’m right. If you don’t, then you don’t deserve to live in a putative democracy.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Symptoms vs. Causes
This is a comment I posted on the Truthdig site, in response to a column by Robert Scheer in today's SF Chronicle:
My fervent wish is that Mr. Scheer and other "liberal" columnists and pundits would stop whining about symptoms and start writing and talking about the actual causes of our present dilemma. To wit: The largest crime family in the history of the world, headed by Bush Sr. (aka: George I), primarily through the Carlisle Group (a holding company which owns large stakes in Halliburton, Bechtel, and hundreds if not thousands of the companies reaping huge profits nowadays), has succeeded in brainwashing (perhaps it should be called "brain-dirtying") the American public and much of the rest of the world into accepting an ideology that is nothing less than a Social Darwinist eugenics scheme.
This ideology "went public" via Ronald Reagan in 1980, but has been nurtured continuously since the Robber Baron era in the late Nineteenth Century. Most, if not all of its major adherents are devoted disciples of Ayn Rand's philosophy of pathological individualism. I like to call them "Econopaths." Their primary tools are tax cuts for the oligarchs and their "dogs in the manger," de-regulation (economic anarchy!), privatization (a euphemism for institutionalized white collar crime - the systematic theft of our common wealth by greedy oligarchs) and excessive military adventurism (thus justifying massive handouts to the Military/Industrial complex).
Anyone who thinks this juggernaught can be stopped by clever arguments, columns or books is not paying attention. What is desperately needed is a new incarnation of Gandhi/Martin Luther King Jr. to mobilize those who feel powerless (despite their substantial numbers), and those who know in their hearts that we are on an immoral, impractical path to ruin, to generate non-violent civil disobedience sufficient to bring this cabal to its knees. As the world's (supposedy) premier democracy, we should expect nothing less.
Is it too much to ask, Mr. Scheer, for a few columns on what we might DO to effect meaningful change? You must know that our so-called "Representative" government has been hijacked by this evil ideology, Democrats no less than Republicans, so voting has become a futile exercise. Is there no hope at all?
My fervent wish is that Mr. Scheer and other "liberal" columnists and pundits would stop whining about symptoms and start writing and talking about the actual causes of our present dilemma. To wit: The largest crime family in the history of the world, headed by Bush Sr. (aka: George I), primarily through the Carlisle Group (a holding company which owns large stakes in Halliburton, Bechtel, and hundreds if not thousands of the companies reaping huge profits nowadays), has succeeded in brainwashing (perhaps it should be called "brain-dirtying") the American public and much of the rest of the world into accepting an ideology that is nothing less than a Social Darwinist eugenics scheme.
This ideology "went public" via Ronald Reagan in 1980, but has been nurtured continuously since the Robber Baron era in the late Nineteenth Century. Most, if not all of its major adherents are devoted disciples of Ayn Rand's philosophy of pathological individualism. I like to call them "Econopaths." Their primary tools are tax cuts for the oligarchs and their "dogs in the manger," de-regulation (economic anarchy!), privatization (a euphemism for institutionalized white collar crime - the systematic theft of our common wealth by greedy oligarchs) and excessive military adventurism (thus justifying massive handouts to the Military/Industrial complex).
Anyone who thinks this juggernaught can be stopped by clever arguments, columns or books is not paying attention. What is desperately needed is a new incarnation of Gandhi/Martin Luther King Jr. to mobilize those who feel powerless (despite their substantial numbers), and those who know in their hearts that we are on an immoral, impractical path to ruin, to generate non-violent civil disobedience sufficient to bring this cabal to its knees. As the world's (supposedy) premier democracy, we should expect nothing less.
Is it too much to ask, Mr. Scheer, for a few columns on what we might DO to effect meaningful change? You must know that our so-called "Representative" government has been hijacked by this evil ideology, Democrats no less than Republicans, so voting has become a futile exercise. Is there no hope at all?
Friday, October 19, 2007
Partisanship
Congratulations to Rep. Pete Starks. Finally, a Democrat with the courage to call a spade a spade. Respect and authority should never be considered "rights" of any office, even the Presidency. They must be earned by appropriate behavior, something George Bush has rarely manifested.
Ultimately, using the word "partisan" as a pejorative derives from a major flaw in our decidedly dysfunctional democracy: namely, the idea that freedom of speech means that different viewpoints are all equally worthy. Some issues are, of course, open to compromise. Others, including lying to justify war, torturing and spying on American citizens are contemptible, and should be condemned and prosecuted, as provided by the constitution. The failure of Democratic leadership to do their duty is inexcusable. Starks' frustration is entirely understandable.
Adequate healthcare is a basic human right. Denying it to children in order to demonstrate his "relevance" is just one more demonstration by Bush of his unsuitability for office. Thank God at least one Democrat has given voice to the feelings of many, if not most Americans.
Ultimately, using the word "partisan" as a pejorative derives from a major flaw in our decidedly dysfunctional democracy: namely, the idea that freedom of speech means that different viewpoints are all equally worthy. Some issues are, of course, open to compromise. Others, including lying to justify war, torturing and spying on American citizens are contemptible, and should be condemned and prosecuted, as provided by the constitution. The failure of Democratic leadership to do their duty is inexcusable. Starks' frustration is entirely understandable.
Adequate healthcare is a basic human right. Denying it to children in order to demonstrate his "relevance" is just one more demonstration by Bush of his unsuitability for office. Thank God at least one Democrat has given voice to the feelings of many, if not most Americans.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Apology
Just got another letter published in the Progressive Populist, 10/15 issue. My fourth in four months; every other issue!!! The text of the letter follows:
My friend Mick Finn (his real name), a disabled Vietnam vet, has an idea that seems well worth sharing with as many others as possible. He notes that a certain percentage of us knew with considerable certainty that Bush’s War on Iraq was a lousy idea from the beginning. Let’s be conservative and say we were 15% of the country. The polls now tell us that around 70% agree with us.
Mick’s idea is that the 55% or so who have finally gotten the message should acknowledge that they were wrong and then offer their humble apologies for questioning our patriotism at the time. Ok, we know a couple of the Democratic candidates for President have done so already, but that still leaves a lot of folks with egg on their faces. Why not emulate South Africa and begin the process of reconciliation with heartfelt apologies?
While we’re at it, maybe we could get the same consideration from those who bought Reagan’s Social Darwinist scheme a quarter century ago and bequeathed us a horrifically dysfunctional society. Many of us were immediately crying “wolf” at the prospect of trashing the Progressive Tax laws, deregulation, cowboy militarism and shredding the social safety net. By now, anyone who thinks any of that was ever a good idea is either mentally challenged or consciously evil. These so-called “Conservative” ideas were and are both impractical and immoral. The unregulated marketplace will always yield the worst kind of Social Darwinism, by maximizing its rewards to those who need and deserve them least. The result is nothing less than a Eugenics scheme, designed to give an insensitive and uncaring minority an enormous advantage over the rest of us through as many generations as possible. Their attempt to repeal the Inheritance Tax speaks for itself.
My friend Mick Finn (his real name), a disabled Vietnam vet, has an idea that seems well worth sharing with as many others as possible. He notes that a certain percentage of us knew with considerable certainty that Bush’s War on Iraq was a lousy idea from the beginning. Let’s be conservative and say we were 15% of the country. The polls now tell us that around 70% agree with us.
Mick’s idea is that the 55% or so who have finally gotten the message should acknowledge that they were wrong and then offer their humble apologies for questioning our patriotism at the time. Ok, we know a couple of the Democratic candidates for President have done so already, but that still leaves a lot of folks with egg on their faces. Why not emulate South Africa and begin the process of reconciliation with heartfelt apologies?
While we’re at it, maybe we could get the same consideration from those who bought Reagan’s Social Darwinist scheme a quarter century ago and bequeathed us a horrifically dysfunctional society. Many of us were immediately crying “wolf” at the prospect of trashing the Progressive Tax laws, deregulation, cowboy militarism and shredding the social safety net. By now, anyone who thinks any of that was ever a good idea is either mentally challenged or consciously evil. These so-called “Conservative” ideas were and are both impractical and immoral. The unregulated marketplace will always yield the worst kind of Social Darwinism, by maximizing its rewards to those who need and deserve them least. The result is nothing less than a Eugenics scheme, designed to give an insensitive and uncaring minority an enormous advantage over the rest of us through as many generations as possible. Their attempt to repeal the Inheritance Tax speaks for itself.
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