Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...
Watching the Scar and his trained seal this morning, they threw up on the screen an excerpt from a NY Times or WSJ article/op ed proclaiming that Obama and the dems were going to pay a huge price this mid term because they failed to make their administration's main mission about job creation. It's a myth on several levels of course, the first and foremost being that it's merely a code phrase for "We need more tax cuts and a bigger, nastier cattle prod for the assholes of the middle class." which is a bit redundant.
HERE is the problem:
(An advertisement from Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine)
I'm sure just one of many companies who will help you profit from creating jobs. Jobs in China and MASS... LONG TERM... unemployment here.
Why companies like this one, ITI, are even allowed to exist is beyond me. Companies whose sole mission is to fuck over American workers in favor of American stock holders. The biggest problem that Democrats face in this regard is that much of this mas migration was due to the policies approved and even championed by Trader Bill Clinton. The next biggest problem the Democrats face in this regard is the lack of action by Barack Obama to turn back the page... Oh... excuse me, he wants to look forward, not back.
Obama needs to fight for the repeal of the policies, treaties and other nonsensical shit behind the de-industrialization of the US. It makes not one fucking rat's ass bit of difference how or how many jobs anyone creates, as long as companies go unpunished, and rewarded, for taking them overseas. But we know that none of this will never happen since such a fight by definition would not be bi-partisan since it's the conservatard BeePeeblicans who WANT this mess.
This is why I term Conservatism (and the BeePeeblican party) to be a pathogenic philosophy. What are they going to do when they've bled all of the jobs and money out of the middle class -- the non-stock holder class -- Here? When they can n longer "Do us the favor" of selling us cheaply made shit because no one has the money to buy it? ???
Sure they're creating a new working class in China, of several billion more than here in the US, but at the (near) slave wages the Chinese are paid, will there be enough money to satisfy their greed? And will the Chinese Government allow the profits to leave? Will the Chinese Government allow for a mass migration of capital and jobs in the reverse to take advantage of the now-impoverished and destitute American work force? Ooops
I don't know how much of this conservative disaster I will live to see. Since Obama has agreed to allow the slashing of Social Security, Medicare and the deregulation of the protections my union pension has had through his Bi-Partisan <== proof that it HAS to be wonderful, debt commission and the G-20, it's likely I'll die starving and penniless, if I'm not killed for my house first. I do believe that it's absolutely inevitable that this will implode on them; or crash like a breaker; choose your own metaphor.
When you dance with the devil, the devil calls the tune.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Please Explain
Sooooo... Obama needs to do more. But he needs to do more in a small government way? ??? Do more... by doing less. Hmmmm...
So what department should he close? Or what regulation should he repeal? Ahhhh... a new tax cut!
Why admit you're wrong when you can do the same old shit? Longer... Harder... Deeper...
The real tragedy is that there are people who will swallow that bull shit and vote for the ass holes putting it out there.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
What WAS that Last Night? ???
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Japanese had it Right UPDATED
One of the biggest arguments against financial reform, and specifically reining in the derivative and credit default swap arenas --I can't bring myself to call them industries, as if they create something real -- was that those jobs would go over seas and to foreign companies. Now we hear
that we can't impose a moratorium on offshore oil drilling because THOSE jobs will go overseas and to foreign companies.
Where were these "protect American jobs" arguments when the cash for clunkers bill was passed? Where were they when the stimulus bill was passed? Why no "Buy American" clauses? Where are they in the California Senate race where the same Carly Fiorina who outsourced Hewlitt Packard and ran it into the ground before being fired with a golden parachute gets a free pass for being a total phony? (more on her later when the videos of her soft hands handling by David Gregory on Meet the Press come out)*
Fallacy No 1: Foreign companies? Foreign companies already ARE involved in our economy here. The London office of AIG was at the center of the credit default swap shit storm. And the oil company fucking up OUR coastline with their fucked up well on OUR continental shelf is BP: BRITISH Petroleum.
Fallacy No 2: Go overseas? In many cases these jobs/companies are already overseas and the companies are bringing their buttfuckerous practices over here. Do we really want to create or maintain a safe haven for those who have destroyed the foundations of the world's economies?
So what's any of this have to do with the Japanese? In their traditional caste system, the Japanese placed merchants and business people BELOW skilled craftsmen, farmers and fishermen, and above only the Eta, which if memory serves meant "much dirt." They were one cut above the outcasts of society because they were viewed as leeches, making their money off of other peoples' labor. Hmmm... like a hedge fund manager..? Who in this country is entitled to pay taxes on his INCOME" at the lower capitol gains rate, even though he's not making money off of his own money, but the money of others.
Regardless of the evils inherent in any caste system, for whatever reason we in America, or the ruling class that's come to be, have turned the idea on its head placing merchants in the place of the Samurai who, regardless of the evils their privilege allowed them, were the ones who defended the country. We have created huge numbers of unemployed, homeless and destitute for populating our own warrior class.
Of course the prime movers and shakers behind these notions and policies? Three guesses and the first two don't count.. The BeePeeblicans and their allies, Bill Clinton and the corporate whore democrats. This is the wet dream of the free marketeers: Cross-border, International corporations that can't be touched without pitting one nation against another. Too big to fail and (as came out on the Norman Goldman Show last Friday) too big to jail.
For the love of god and whatever else keeps your boat afloat, stop swallowing their Bull Shit. It's not the fudge they tell you it is.
*Why wait. From the archives of Scholars and Rogues:
By the way, all that bitchin’ great stuff that Carly Fiorina has done (vaguely alluded to right there at the end of the Fellini Faillini epic)? Best we can tell they have to be referring to her memorable stint as CEO of HP. How’d that go, you ask?This is the same twit who just proclaimed that this election is all about jobs. Would that be creating them? Sustaining them? Sending them overseas?“When Fiorina became CEO in July, 1999, HP’s stock price was $52 per share, and when she left 5 years later in February, 2005, it was $21 per share—a loss of over 60% of the stock’s value. During this same time period, HP competitor Dell’s stock price increased from $37 to $40 per share.”
All of which led the folks at Portfolio to name her the 19th worst CEO of all time.
A consummate self-promoter, Fiorina was busy pontificating on the lecture circuit and posing for magazine covers while her company floundered. She paid herself handsome bonuses and perks while laying off thousands of employees to cut costs. The merger Fiorina orchestrated with Compaq in 2002 was widely seen as a failure. She was ousted in 2005.
I guess they don’t call her “Carly Failorina” for nothing, huh?
So what could possibly be worse than a Palin-Bachman ticket for 2012 (or should I say administration)? How about a Palin-Fiorina? A quitter and a failure. Of course doing something good, is no longer a requirement for a refuckyoucan nomination. It's a dis-qualifier.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
If It Was My Home - Visualizing the BP Oil Spill
"We'll make sure this never happens again." Yeah. Right.
Data up through 2004. Too bad it doesn't give an account of the past 6 years.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Blanched Obama Nuts Updated
I went to see Ed Schultz last night, and his first question from the stage was, "So is Barack Obama what you expected him to be?" or something like that. The response was at Best split down the middle if not more negative than positive. Myself? He's what I expected: A Phony.
The Lincoln endorsement, primary and reaction are just the latest in a long chain of centrist/corporatist actions by Obama which all add up to show that he is NOT a friend of Labor, the middle/working class or even the traditional democratic party base. Change? He's changed the Democratic Party into the republicans of the 50s and 60s.
I didn't get to speak at Town Hall last night, but if Barack Obama wants a second term he has two chances: He can either embrace the working class and labor, or he can hope he gets a tea bagger opponent like Harry Reid has.
I haven't liked Obama since he backed FISA and he's done NOTHING to change my mind since he's been in office. He's an opportunist and a phony.
UPDATE: (a paraphrased letter)
I called Norman Goldman yesterday and vented about Obama as corporate Democrat Numero Uno. He encouraged me to go to Ed's gathering here in Seattle and I did, but did not get to speak. Next time I'll go with a camping chair and camp out at the microphone. Anyway....
In his own venting yesterday about Blanche Lincoln, he pounded on the fact that she supported the Bankruptcy Bill during Dubya's Reign of Error. Well, let me ask: Who is the co-author of that atrocity? Let me answer: Joe Biden, Obama's Vice President. Further, who is Barack Obama's chief of staff? Let me answer. Mr, Where-else-are-liberals-going-to-go, Rahm Emanuel, who despises Howard Dean, and was firmly opposed to Dean's Fifty State Strategy, without which Barack Obama would NEVER have won in Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia or Florida.
This is like Dubya's choices of Cheney & Powell, and his second choice for Defense Secretary, Rummy. His first choice was Norman Schwartzkopf. An administration built from the get-go for invading Iraq. And Democrats were still moronic enough to vote in favor of that farce.
I said it yesterday and I'll say it until I see evidence otherwise: Barack Obama is a P-H-O-N-Y !!!!! His support for the FISA legislation proved it. NO constitutional NOVICE would have supported that, much less a "constitutional law professor." Oh well.... Dubya the Bankruptor has a Harvard MBA. So much for our higher education system.
I will give Ed credit for his positive outlook, but in the face of things, it strikes me almost as naivete. On the other hand, the alternative, curling up in the fetal position, doesn't appeal to me either. If Obama wants to be anything other than a one term president voted out in disgrace, he MUST embrace those who voted him in. Little people: The working class; Labor; Downtrodden minorities.
Obama supporters: Don't blame me, or Labor unions, for deserting Obama and the Democratic Party. Blame Obama for turning the Democratic Party into the Republican Party of Richard Nixon. The only thing missing is Watergate.
I remember Norm's quote of Eugene V Debs: Better to vote for what you want and not get it, than to vote for what you don't get and be stuck with it.
We need to free ourselves from Battered Voter Syndrome.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Here he is was
Patty Murray's opponent.
Donate here.
and tell others. all 6 to 12 of you who hit my page.
Where do we look now? For a true leader? Now we'll probably wind up with Senator Dino Rossi, the Arlen Specter clone, with the exception that he's not yet (that I know of) switched parties in his never-ending quest to avoid the labor market.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Surprised? NOT
Just read.
h/t to Raw story and Physicians for Human Rights for confirming what the sensible among us already knew.
So.... can we now PLEASE have the investigations we've been clamoring for since BEFORE you were elected Mr Obama? ???
Sunday, June 6, 2010
FINALLY
I have said and I will continue to say that we can explain this latest oil industry disaster with two words:
For thirty years, the Neo-Conservative party has been driven by the philosophy that "less is more," in terms of government and regulation. As Tea Bagger Queen Sarah Palin puts it: "...the limited role of government..." As living oxymoron, champion of conservative intellect, George F Will puts it, "We conservatives realize that the role of Government is to defend the borders and deliver the mail." As their great patron Saint Ronald the Reagan put it, "I've often (always?) thought the nine most feared words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' and 'Government isn't the solution to your problems; government IS the problem.'"
And now we see the results.
Again.
All because the conservatards got what they wanted:
And yet the (their) madness continues. And I'm not just talking about their lying about their own words and records. I expect republicans to lie about their records. it's what they do. It's ALL they can do, since every single thing they've done since Reagen took office has been bad for the country. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong. Certainly the eight years of Bush were the most destructive since the Civil War years -- the magical time to which Ron Paul would like to take us.
NOTHING was Bush's fault. According to the republican faithful. 9-11? Clinton's fault. Well hell, it was so early in Bush's administration. But even after EIGHT years, the financial meltdown and the housing bubble... STILL Clinton's fault. No matter that he'd had eight fucking years to fix things.
Thank you Arianna for FINALLY standing your ground against those two assholes.