The Fight Goes On

"This is a rich country that's creating billionaires by the bucketful and running history's most expensive military empire. We can afford for our elderly, disabled and sick to be decently taken care of. It's just a matter of priorities"

The end of another of Digby's great posts.

We can decide that people who need help, which is most of us at one time or another, can get it or we can continue our throwaway society and take them out with the trash.

I say lets realign our priorities back to what FDR started, what that war monger LBJ continued and join the rest of the world in providing that help when it is needed. No one gets rich off of welfare or SSDI or medicare or medicaid or unemployment, nor will they with the new healthcare law. If you are lucky those programs will allow you to survive, if you are very lucky they may allow you to pick up your life and move on.
They are opportunities, nothing more. Wonderful, absolutely necessary opportunities. But they are barely adequate most of the time, and not even that all the time.

We won a big fight on Tuesday but the war is not over. It will never be over for there are too many people who think that a hand up is wrong, that survival is only a matter of helping one's self. That may be true if you live in a cabin in the wilderness by yourself, miles from your nearest neighbor. How many of us live like that? I'll bet not even a hundredth of a percent.

To those who think we should never help anyone else, join the human race, it isn't a bad deal, sometimes it is even fun to run with the rest of us.

We really are screwed.

 Over at Hullabaloo both digby and thereisnospoon have been getting right to the heart of the chief issue we face today. The worlds financial situation. Or maybe that should be the worlds financial implosion. Here is the takeaway graph from thereisnospoon today:

"It's high time that economists worldwide begin to envision a different way forward: a way for sovereigns to bypass reckless financial institutions and survive in the interdependent global economy without their help. A way, in other words, to truly allow banks that are too big to fail, to fail. A way to allow nations to tell investors that they will have to accept the consequences of their having taken the risk that comes with making money off interest with no labor involved. If not, the moral hazard of an increasingly powerful and unaccountable global investor elite will continue destroy sovereign nations socially, economically and spiritually. It's only going to get worse from here."

 As long as the people are slaves to the big banks we will continue to be at risk for an epic depression, that looks to be much worse than the 1930's. At the time many more people worked in agrarian jobs and could, if not be totally self-sufficient, survive. And there were bread lines and a good percentage of people were continuously hungry. Now most food in the industrial countries comes from large corporations, owned by investors. They will not provide food for those who have no jobs, without being paid. Most of the supermarkets are owned by large corporations and they will not give away food. So when the depression hits the hardest and there are no jobs, savings are gone and a large segment of the population is starving and homeless, it will be chaos. A dangerous chaos.

The big problem as thereisnospoon pointed out is that the investment class has changed the definition of risk. It's no longer a position of possible loss, it is a position of permanent wealth.

The New World Order

We have to not only block this asshole Ryan's plan to kill old people. And I don't mean over 100 yrs old. I mean 55 and older. Talk about your death panels. Talk about healthcare rationing. As always the things that conservatives yell about the loudest are exactly the things they want to do to everyone other than themselves. We have to defeat these assholes. And they are ASSHOLES.
I am ashamed that people like Ryan actually get elected in this country in the 21st century. What's more the largest group of people that voted for him are the ones to be the most affected.

I used to think we were better than this. I'm not so sure about that any more. Hell, I am sure. We aren't better, we suck as a people. We have one of the largest economies in the world. California by itself is in the top ten economies. And all we can afford to do is to kill people. We supposedly can't feed ourselves, house ourselves, provide health care but we sure as fuck can kill people. It's what we do. We are the 24/7 death and destruction country. That's what we do. We kill other people. Up to now. And because it costs so much to do it to others we are now going to save money and do it here. Conservatives are trying to have our government do what it does best right here at home. Not with bullets or bombs but with selfishness and greed.


Kevin Drum. Short and to the point.

You don't know how glad I am not to have kids that would have to live in this kind of a world.

Onward Wisconson

I have not been posting in a while, because I am close to burnout.
But.
I have to link to Kay at balloon-juice and I am also going to post the entire wonderful thing here. I own a business, a very small business without employees. In the past I have owned another business with employees and I have managed many others in jobs. I am sure that I was not always able to treat my employees or those I managed with the same concept espoused here but I tried to. Employees are what make a business work. Or not work. They are the engine, not the spare tire.
Kay writes a brilliant piece here but I think it really is or should be about all employees, not just unions.

Ironworkers Local 8

by Kay

I was reading about the protests in Wisconsin, and I saw this photo. The gentleman on the left is a member of Iron Workers Local 8. That number made me stop and think. That number has meaning to me, because I know the history of labor unions in this country. It means nothing to conservative pundits or the vapid giggling morons who comprise the brain trust on Morning Joe, and it means nothing to the Governor of Wisconsin, but it resonates with me.

Eight is a low number. It’s a low number because that local was chartered a long time ago.

How long? This long:

Our official celebration was based on the charter issued by the International Association of Bridge and Structural Ironworkers of America on February 1, 1901 to the Housesmiths and Bridgemen’s Local Union No. 8 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Although the words “Housesmith’s and Bridgemen’s” were dropped long ago, that charter still hangs proudly in the board room of Local 8’s office in Milwaukee.

If you go to that local’s site, you’ll read this:

“Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could not have existed had not labor first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.”
-Abraham Lincoln

This is the dictionary definition of collective bargaining:

Method whereby representatives of employees (unions) and employers negotiate the conditions of employment, normally resulting in a written contract setting forth the wages, hours, and other conditions to be observed for a stipulated period (e.g., 3 years). The term also applies to union-management dealings during the term of the agreement.

The phrase collective bargaining has a much larger meaning than “benefits”, and to watch Scott Walker with his vacant ideologue’s stare reciting bullet points over and over is to realize he has no idea what it means.

It means workers have a seat at the table. It’s a simple idea but it’s incredibly powerful. That’s what they’re defending.

Tens of thousands of people don’t get off their couch and camp out in a capitol building because of a dispute over paying 15% towards health insurance or paying 20%. Conservatives and their media allies would like to convince us they do, they’d like to convince us that this is about budget numbers or contract terms or benefits, but it isn’t.

Scott Walker is threatening to take away something very valuable. He’s telling them two things: your long labor history doesn’t matter, and you haven’t earned a seat at the table. They know better than that.

President Obama used the word “assault” because it’s accurate, within the history and context of labor unions. If you’re a person who is willfully or lazily pig-ignorant of that history, or a person who believes this country began with the election of Ronald Reagan, you’ll miss that, and you’ll start reciting deficit numbers and health insurance co-pays of union members as compared to non-union employees. But if you do that, you’ll be missing the point.

Negotiation is to unions what diplomacy is to nations. It’s what they work like hell at before they fail, and go to war. Union members aren’t proud of their ability to stop working and strike. Any idiot can start a war. A strike means negotiations failed. They’re proud of their ability to negotiate. They’re proud of that fact that they’re sitting in a hard-won seat at the table, and dealing as equals with the other representatives sitting at that table.

Scott Walker wouldn’t sit down with them. He denied them their history and the hard-won agency and dignity that comes with a seat at the table and in doing so threatened something much more valuable than wages or benefits. He refused to use diplomacy; refused to grant them the respect that dealing with them as equals confers, and went right to war. They know that. It’s why they turned out. President Obama chooses words very carefully. He knows it too.

More about fascism

Sara Robinson's post on fascism at FDL, http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6987 has raised quite a stink.

Some of us think that it may be one of the most important posts ever. Some disagree.
But as I look around I see people who seem to be too stupid to find out any actual facts and to see that their only source of facts info is the Glen Bullshitters of the airwaves. As Sara's post is about the sinking of democracies by their crazy, seemingly disenfranchised citizens and we are right on schedule to be at the point of no return I think that should be depressing.
The only way to get past this and keep the country that we know is to recognize this, and now, so that we can act on it.
The only problem with the right wing talking about fascism is that they don't realize they are talking about themselves.

More H/T EB Misfit

Where to from here?

Please read the following post at FDL by Sara Robinson
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6987

With all the lies and fear mongering from the right on an issue that would help almost everyone in some way and most likely not harm anyone, what we're actually seeing is a desperate last grasp power grab. And that is truly depressing. I thought that is what was but Sara's post brings the history of this kind of movement front and center. I wish with every fiber of my being that it can be turned around, headed off, reasoned with, whatever. But I'm afraid that we won't be able to.
I think what we're seeing is the start of the death of a nation. I've never wanted so badly not to be an eye witness.

H/T Earth-Bound Misfit

A rant for my birthday

The murder in FL of the couple who have adopted the special needs kids. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/12/florida.couple.slain/index.html
John at Balloon Juice has an interesting post http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=23991 about the death penalty and it's possible application in this case. I'm not disagreeing with him that this kind of crime makes one think of the death penalty, I'm just tired of being that kind of person.

The death penalty is not about justice, it's about retribution. And it's not that we don't all have it in all of us to want retribution, it should be about all of us being better humans. Or at least trying. I think we need to question why do some countries have many, many fewer murders per capita, and no death penalty? What is it about americans which makes at least some of us think that this works?
I like my country but we have some fucked up customs and practices that really screw up a lot of lives. The death penalty, crappy health care, the rich get richer and the rest screwed (that one probably is universal, just not as well practiced), great ideals for our government and laws, many of which are ignored in the execution, wars on everything (brute force sometimes works on pickle jars, not as well on most everything else), our general public political discourse seems to consist of lying long and hard enough to make people believe the lies. Is it like this everywhere or just some of our quaint traits?

Perplexed

I don't get conservatives. They seem to want to take away liberties, freedoms, and now even life itself. Well not all life, only humane, caring doctors. They seem to want to suffer even more in life and to make others suffer.
UPDATE - looks like not just Doctors. http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5702
So does anyone with an once of sense now have to look out for (wackos) terrorists on every street corner?

I'd say the problem is Christian religion. Or maybe all religions, but look at the Christian religion as that seems to be the religion of choice for conservatives. Maybe it's the suffering thing, for we must all suffer for the sins of humanity. What a load of crap. Unless you believe that there are only a finite number of souls and we are all reincarnated. I wasn't there, I was born in the last century, not 20 of them ago. I may have some responsibility for Bush being president as I didn't work hard enough to not get him elected, (oh wait I believe that he was appointed, anointed or some such).
What is it that makes someone so selfish, so inhumane, so..... well un-christian? Do they even read the book they profess to adore, especially the part about oh I don't know, Christ?
I have been looking off and on for about 50 years for the answers to this and I haven't heard or found any. When I was in bible study and actually read the book (10-11 years old) and found it to be, well bullshit. This is not a book about how to live your life, it's about how people with limited education, no scientific knowledge perceived the world. It seems that with knowledge the world is or should be a less scary place, but religion has to keep it scary or no one would follow. And not only scary but that what little piece of it someone has will be taken away if they don't stay scared.
So now our politics are not only infused with this crap, it has totally affected our lives. We can't have health care for all, not enough suffering. We must wage war, not only against other cultures, but even within our own culture. The war on drugs, the war on abortion (and make no mistake it is a war), what is the desired end result?
I am asking questions because I don't see anyone else asking them. I don't have answers but I'd like to hear if you do.