Try this on for size: fifty million Americans in the last year have struggled to get enough food. Half the children in the United States during the course of the next year are expected to need food stamps to eat. Last year Goldman Sachs paid corporate taxes at the rate of one percent and this year is on track to show a record profit, and of that, nearly 17 billion dollars has been set aside to pay bonuses.
Do I sound like an old line Marxist if I suggest this gross inequality is unacceptable? I can assure you I am not a Marxist, but I am convinced no possible good can come of this state of affairs. Our President is doing nothing to rein in the banksters, we have spent tens of trillions of dollars, more than double the amount needed to pay off every primary home mortgage in this country, and we have a growing population of desperate, permanently unemployed workers. The number of unemployed is bound to increase.
In the third quarter of this year home foreclosures hit almost one million. More and more of us average joes are losing our homes, our jobs and with them our health insurance. meanwhile our Senators are debating how to screw us out of affordable decent health care coverage. The sort of coverage they enjoy as a matter of course. How is this possible?
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Well, I suppose it's possible because too many of us still hope that everything will work out, that the American Dream will get back on track, that things will start improving soon. There are ten state sin the US that are considered to be on the verge of bankruptcy and it gives me no joy to note that Florida is one of them. This is a state that has no personal income tax and relies on sales taxes and property taxes, both of which are in precipitous decline. It is no wonder then, that the Sunshine State is on the verge of imploding. This is a state with a part-time legislature (!) that meets for a few months at the beginning of the year. In the legislature's absence the Governor and his elected cabinet run the state. From them we have had no peep that there is trouble on the horizon. Come on down! The winter sunshine is lovely!
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So what are we to do? Well, gun stores are reporting massive sales and ammunition is flying off the shelves. I don't count that as an encouraging sign of the things to come. I keep thinking about that TV show called Dark Angel, in which the creators depicted a United States laid low and devastated by a mysterious electronic pulse. People lived shambolic Third World lives scraping a living under the watchful eye of jackbooted security police and robot guards. The lucky ones fled to Canada...
Happy Thanksgiving, is the phrase of the day and I suppose it means something for those of us with jobs, homes and health insurance. Everyone else? Good luck.
7 comments:
Dear Conch:
Happy Thanksgiving to you back...
I got a call from an old friend tonight. He lives in Alaska and his income was cut 66%. He has no health insurance for his two sons, and it is driving him crazy. Two years ago, he was a publicist/lobbyist earning $150,000 a year. He is now struggling as further income constriction seems likely. He was calling me to see if I knew if anyone was hiring. I don't.
In fact, I have never known more writers, photographers, and illustrators to be out of work then ever before. If anyone tells you we are in a recovery, I can assure you of three trades that are expecting soup kitchen bonuses in 2010.
We liked the President's promise of change, and Leslie and I supported this man, despite being ridiculed by friends and family. We refused to read the stupid shit about his birth certificate, about his being a Muslim sympathizer, about his being a socialist, about his being a fascist, and about his being a self-serving dope.
The shithead part is apparently true.
The man needs to open the top desk drawer and read the manual on how to be President. He needs to learn how to speak to Democrats, how to speak to the common man, and how to speak to foreign heads of state (without holding his hat in his hand).
He needs to learn how to spell J-O-B-S, and he needs to how to create them, other than on the bullshit federal website. And by creating them, I mean creating an environment that will bring local manufacturing jobs back to the US. And that means the private sector. And that means tighter regulations for some, new regulations for others, and new incentives for small business operations.
I am not a smart person. How is it I understand these things and he does not. Right now, I honestly believe he is wardheeler from Chicago, who will be challenged for the leadership of the Democratic party at the next election. Get used to the idea of another President Clinton.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
Okay okay, I am starting to give up on President Obama. I sort of like the idea of a different Democrat in 2012, an FDR for the 21st century remains my vain hope.
Who did your family want you to vote for? The dead man walking and his alaskan princess or the hopeless Ron?
Dear Conchscooter:
We were surrounded by flesh-eating zombies who wanted us to vote Republican. We could not do so based on the GOP's previous performance record, their contempt of the voter, their lack of a platform, their absence of a message, and the fact that they had no candidate.
So we bought the "honest man" package. How could I have been so stupid?
Jack
I am going to chime in here a small bit. A local company wanted to start up manufacturing concern of small vertical windmills for installation on residences.
The owner applied to most of the government agencies for tax breaks, grants, etc. to local, state, and federal agencies.
You know what the response was? Zip, notta, nothing.
Now here is a company that is attempting to create local jobs in manufacturing, using green energy and he gets the proverbial shaft? I know local SWFL government are very self-servicing, but you would have thought some mileage would have been to be had. To not even award tax breaks is so short term thinking (which is why in the recent election, we voted out the entire council and the mayor had the long term city manager resign).
But back the company. What did the owner do? He went and found angel investors and kept right on going, pulling up the old boot straps.
I guess we need to help ourselves before asking the government for help, it is just the sense of fairness that revs us up. After all, it is our tax money propping up big INTERNATIONAL business, whether it be current or future revenues.
Within the next few months the federal government will extend health care insurance to millions of people who don't currently have it. That's a stunning development in this country. It will radically change, for the better, the lives of millions of people. To overlook that tranformative moment and not see that it's also the Obama administration's number one priority is ridiculous. Maybe your friends are having a tough time finding $150K jobs, but the guy selling you whiskey at the corner package store is going to get health insurance and he won't have to move to Europe to get it.
Here's the thing: Democrats controll congress and the presidency and they have shilly shallied trying to make nice with Republican opposition that has failed TOTALLY to offer any kind of alternatives, or sensible amendments or anything. The effing catholic bishops have influenced this package more than the loyal opposition in Congress!
That does not make for bi-partisan legislation, yet the dumbass democrats are still dithering about oh god what to do. First? Take Lieberman's chairmanship away and sink his sorry in dependant ass out of sight. Second? By executive order repeal don't ask don't tell for the military. Then, when Republicans see they are out in the wilderness threaten every other sorry ass democrat who doesn't vote for a STRONG public option that they will never have any influence in the party ever again. Tell that to senators Campbell et al.
And then tell the Republicans and their sorry leninist bear baiting to go fuck themselves.
Then start a new WPA and put people to work.
There thats what I would do if I controlled Congress and the goddamned white house.
But I am still able to discern a difference between el;ecting a wishy washy democrat over a nutter republican. Women who aren't independantly wealthy will be able to as well, hoipefully if these feeble democrats live up to billing and manage somehow to preserve roe versus wade. Relying on Sotomayor to do it single handed seems too pathetic even for them.
Happy sodding Thanksgiving.
Where the hell is FDR when you desperately need him?
Washington and Oregon are two states that are not too far behind California and Florida in the race off the cliff. Washington has no income tax, Oregon has no sales tax. In both cases, voters rejected tax reform NINE times over the last 30 years. In addition, both states' legislatures hands are tied by citizen initiatives that micromanage how and where money is spent. Then there's Oregon's "kicker," which requires any tax revenue exceeding 2% of projections to be refunded to taxpayers. Never mind for most people it barely pays for a trip to Walmart, this really cripples Oregon's ability to build a rainy-day fund, get ahead of crumbling infrastructure or do other things that would get its economy rolling again.
But the sad part is, everybody seems to be okay with Washington and Oregon turning into Mississippi and Louisiana. Just like people seem to be totally okay with someone like me being turned away from health care facilities when my problems could've been dealt with easily, because I couldn't pay, or didn't have employer-paid health insurance.
America today is so broken more and more people are saying it can't be fixed, at least not in the current political and social climate. Things are just going to get worse...
__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool
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