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TechnoratiThe Shameful State of the Union
Here's one thing everyone should be able to agree upon from George Bush's State of the Union address: "We have unfinished business before us."
Apart from that, it's a little difficult to credit much of what he said.
"So long as we continue to trust the people, our nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the state of our Union will remain strong," he concluded.
But the state of our Union is anything but strong. Consider these snapshots:
1. The United States is spending more than $700 billion a year on the military.
The 2008 appropriations bills include $506.9 billion for the Department of Defense and the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy, plus an additional $189.4 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. [1]
Other military funding is located in the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.
Congress has approved nearly $700 billion to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is the appropriated amount. It doesn't include costs to society -- loss of life, injuries, etc. The amount spent on war-fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq now exceeds the inflation-adjusted amount spent on the Vietnam War. [2]
The United States accounts for roughly half of the world's military expenditures. [3]
Depending on how you count, more than half of all discretionary federal spending is now directed to the military. [4]
2. Wealth is concentrating in the United States at a startling rate.
So startling, in fact, it is very hard to get your head around the statistics. Notes Sam Pizzigati of the invaluable online newsletter Too Much: In 2004, the richest 1 percent in the United States held over $2.5 trillion more in net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent.
The concentration of wealth and income reflects a major shift over the last three decades in how the United States shares its earnings. In 1976, the top 1 percent of the population received 8.83 percent of national income. In 2005, they grabbed 21.93 percent. [5]
3. Compensation for CEOs and Wall Street financiers is out of control
The average CEO from a Fortune 500 company now makes 364 times an average worker's pay, reports the Institute of Policy Studies. This is up from a 40-to-1 ratio in 1980. [6]
But the managers of businesses that make things and deliver non-financial services aren't making the truly big money these days. In the hyper-financialized economy, it's the finance guys who are getting truly rich.
And they're getting rich despite the huge losses being wracked up on Wall Street. Bonuses for those toiling on Wall Street totaled $33.2 billion in 2007, down just 2 percent, according to New York state comptroller's office. Overall compensation and benefits at seven of the Street's biggest firms totaled $122 billion, up 10 percent since 2006 -- even though net overall revenue for these firms fell 6 percent. [7]
But even the traditional investment banks can't match the outrageous compensation captured by private equity and hedge fund managers, a few of whom manage to pull in more than $1 billion in a single year. Thanks to a tax loophole, these characters pay income tax at a rate less than half of what a dentist making $200,000 a year pays.
4. Corporations are capturing more of the nation's wealth.
Corporate profits amounted to 8 percent of GDP over the last decade, Business Week reports, up from 6.5 percent in the early 1990s. [8]
5. The housing bubble and the subprime mortgage meltdown are driving millions of families from their homes.
The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that 2.2 million subprime home loans made in recent years have already failed or will end in foreclosure. Homeowners will lose $164 billion from these foreclosures, the Center projects. [9] Overall losses from deflated housing values may top $2 trillion. One in five subprime mortgages originated during the past two years is likely to end in foreclosure.
6. The racial wealth divide remains a chasm with little prospect of being bridged -- and is likely growing worse.
At the rate the wealth divide closed between 1982 and 2004, it would take 594 more years for African Americans to achieve parity with whites, according to United for a Fair Economy. But the subprime debacle is hitting minority communities disproportionately hard, causing what United for a Fair Economy believes may be the worst deprivation of people of color's wealth in modern U.S. history. [10]
7. Women continue to be paid far less than men.
The ratio of the annual averages of women's and men's median weekly earnings was 80.8 for full-time workers in 2006, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Progress in closing the gender wage gap has slowed considerably since 1990. The gender wage ratio for annual earnings increased by 11.4 percentage points from 1980 to 1990, but added only 5.4 percentage points over the next 15 years. [11]
8. More than one in six children live in poverty.
Is there a worse indictment of the richest society in history? The official U.S. poverty rate was 12.3 percent for 2006. The rate for children was 17.4 percent. The official poverty line is absurdly low. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget the average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2006 was $20,614. For an individual, it was $10,294. [12]
9. More than 45 million people in the United States do not have health insurance.
According to the Census Bureau, 47 million were uninsured in 2006, 15.8 percent of the population. [13]
10. The U.S. trade deficit is more than 5 percent of the gross domestic product.
The 2006 U.S. trade deficit totaled $763.6 billion. [14] The trade deficit will eventually have to be balanced -- sooner than later, it now seems. As the dollar continues to swoon, expect to see inflation and higher interest rates over the medium term. The real standard of living, in economic terms, will decline as a result.
11. U.S. fuel efficiency is worse now than it was two decades ago.
The average fuel economy of today's U.S. car and truck fleet is 25.3 miles per gallon, reports the Union of Concerned Scientists, lower than the 25.9 mpg fleet average in 1987. Regulatory standards have not changed (though a modest increase is mandated by the energy bill passed in 2007), and more SUVs and light truck are on the road. [15]
12. The nation's infrastructure is crumbling.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed over a five-year period to bring the nation's infrastructure to good condition. [16]
13. More than two million people in the United States are locked in prison.
What a colossal waste of human talent. 2,258,983 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails, at the end of 2006, an increase of 2.9 percent from 2005. The prison population has grown 3.4 percent annually since 1995. African-American males are imprisoned at a rate 6.5 times higher than white males, Latino males almost 3 times higher than whites. [17]
Most of these conditions are worse now than at the start of the Bush administration, many dramatically worse. But they have their roots in a bipartisan policy approach over the last three decades, favoring deregulation, handover of government assets to corporations (privatization), corporate globalization, hyper-financialization, lunatic military expenditures, tax cuts for the rich and a slashed social safety net.
If the United States is to see "real change" -- and actually strengthen the state of the Union -- there will have to be a reversal of these policies.
[1] Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
[2] Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
[3] SIPRI Yearbook 2007, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
[4] War Resisters League
[5] Too Much
[6] Executive Excess 2007, Institute for Policy Studies
[7] Tomoeh Murakami Tse and Renae Merle, The Bonuses Keep Coming, TheWashington Post, January 29, 2008
[8] Michael Mandel, How Real Was the Prosperity, Business Week, January 23 2008
[9] Center for Responsible Lending, Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners
[10] Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008, United for a Fair Economy
[11] Institute for Women's Policy Research, The Gender Wage Ratio: Women's And Men's Earnings
[12] http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty06/tables06.html
[13] http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin06/hlth06asc.html
[14] http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/annual.html
[15] Union of Concerned Scientists, Fuel Economy Basics
[16] American Society of Civil Engineers, Report Card for America's Infrastructure
[17] US DOJ, Office of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, and director of Essential Action.
(c) Robert Weissman
61 Comments so far
Show AllBakunin: Bull's eye again. Breaking up the US is an excellent idea.
I've just finished reading ALL of the posts above. In my opinion, about half are dead on and the other half don't seem to get that American democracy has been dying for over 30 years.
It's not just Bush. As evil as he is, he just caught the train that was headed to the same destination. It just so happens that this train is just closer to its destructive destination now. Some of us can actually now see where we have been heading all along. Some of us still can't see how this journey ends. But end it will.
I want to thank Doom & Gloom, Bakunin, patnval, and LeAnnG for your contributions to my education and perspective. I am always amazed at the amount of knowledge that posters here have. Thanks for sharing.
The entire house must fall down before it can be rebuilt. And I like Doom n Glooms concept of breaking it down into smaller chunks built for the 21st century. Even large corporations learned long ago that "big" was not suited to our rapidly changing environment. So they were broken up into smaller divisions so they could respond more quickly to the markets. I tend to agree that America has become too large and diverse to govern centrally, top down. And maybe breaking the country down into 6 or 7 united republics is worth looking at. The American people would have to call another Constitutional Convention to work all this out.
Does anyone know if there is anything in the Constitution that directly addresses the issue of another Constitutional Convention?
Phil Ross,
Quit buying what?
My wife and I are on Social Security. I would like to explain to you a few details about fixed income and rising outgo.
We quit buying Christmas trinkets and decorations and bling. We reduced buying Christmas gifts to four in the near family, and reduced the cost to ten dollars each. I quit buying alcohol and tobacco. We eat out once a month instead of once a week. We grow about half of our veggies. We buy beef, chicken,lamb, and eggs from local farmers. (friends at church) We started to buy our clothes at Goodwill. I walk a half mile to town, weather permitting. Excessive costs are fresh fruit and produce in winter, gasoline and medications. The first we avoid, the last two we can't.We have Medicare parts a , b, and d. Last year our out of pocket cost for my wife's medicine alone was $4,352. This year the insurance company cancelled coverage on two critical medicines, increasing our cost by $400 a month. When we quit buying something, it won't be to prove point, but so we can buy something we need more.
When the poop hits the prop, the rank and file will be on the south end of the rope. In the meantime, thieves, war profiteers, political whores and pimps control this nation, and will continue to do so as long 45 percent of the people don't vote. Voter apathy is the result looking at the choices.
If you can imagine it, you can create it.
You just have to remember how.
"What we need is for people to QUIT BUYING."
Phil Ross, your statement goes to the heart of it. It's a simple idea, perhaps almost too simple for progressives, thinking people, to grasp.
Our political vote has been stolen twice. So the dollar is our only "real" vote remaining. To lay the beast low we must starve it. I have witnessed only a few posters here who have committed to doing so. The rest have recoiled and rationalized. If progressives cannot stop buying who will?
Who cares about the Clinton scandals? It would be hard to find any politicion in DC that would have a spotless record,and they would not want the job anyway. It is not the ones that pad their own pockets that worry me, it is the ones that will totally wreck our country for decades and hand the mess off to the kids. We need to go with the best we have to combat the ruinous philosophy of the present administration and their lackeys that want in next. The Clinton administration at least kept the country on course, and they could do it again. They do not have any more baggage than any of the others, except Bill told one lie as opposed to several hundred of the present occupants.
Texas: "Braziliation of the USA is at work. A visit to Sao Paulo shows where the USA will be in a decade." Oh really? I would take the Brazilian Real over the US Dollar anyday!!The Real has kicked the Dollar's butt all over the place. Brazil has it's problems for sure, and I don't want to make light of it, but if America is being "Braziliafied", wouldn't that be a step up?
Edit: I would also like to mention that Brazil has a President that is half way progressive, which is a lot more than I can say about our fake ass unelected dictator Fred Flintstone of a president.
The democracy is alive and well. Americans knew they were getting more of the same every year since 1981. They had a chance every two years since to vote the corporations out of Washington. They could have voted in progressives. They didn't do it. So this is what they got.
The answer of course is a progressive platform that limits enterprise annual income to $100 mil in five years, then to $5 mil in another five years. A fragmentation and dispersion of the production to regional/local communities. Full costs in retail prices, etc. Full costs eliminates the wasted resource allocation and production (around 90% currently), enabling 15 hour work weeks. Everyone knows there are reasonable solution arrived at with good faith. It's easy to find out who's acting in good faith and who's not. The progressive way is clear, the prosperity, stability and biosphere recovery are assured. There is no question that it works very well.
The only question is how to snuff out the elitist crime/corruption and the answer is very simple: Shifting individual exchange/association away from power centers toward local economies, enlightenment and civic responsibility for all the people, including voting our principles in the elections (third party progressives). Results: Full, stable prosperity for all, free public healthcare, education, transportation, low cost high quality food/shelter, healthy thriving biosphere, end to war, poverty, and other capitalist catastrophes.
Kernel, you illustrate the problem in this country perfectly....this has not taken 7 years, it has been going on for decades...at least 3 of them.
It's all nice and feel good to decry GWB et al. but the truth is that democrats and republicans alike have worked hard to give us exactly what we have. Clinton, Obama, McCain, Romney...rich as midas every one of em. Do you honestly think that they will work against their own fiscal self interest.
It's not the parties that are the problem, it is the system. This is massive system failure. Who we vote for is not going to change a single thing. Why do you think that the media has conspired to give us these 4, so to be 2 candidates to choose from? Perhaps because they are interchangable?
The entire system must be replaced. The rich don't want it replaced. Under the current system they all enjoy a standard of living the likes of which most americans can only dream of. The masses don't realize that there IS NO HERO. No white knight coming to save the day.
Don't buy into the arguement that voting for this rich bastard or that rich bitch will change anything. They like it this way.
This is a class war, plain and simple. Warren Buffet, second riches person in the world, said as much and added that his side was winning. He was right. But where was the outrage from the people? Where was the outcry from those running for office? Have you heard a single denial.
They have erected a wall of poverty and ignorance around you...try reading the writing on it. They have made no secret of their intentions, but because we want to believe otherwise we blindfold ourselves and then curse the darkness.
Until the people get tired of eating shit sandwiches while the rich feast on the bodies of our children the system will remain the same.
Let's talk about shameful and who can really reform our government in a principled manner.
We've got Clinton scandal fatigue redux already?!
Here are Clinton scandals that just hit the paper today. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4218509&page=1 We are getting Clinton scandal fatigue and the Primaries aren't even over!
We've got a serious electability issue. After seven years of incompetent, corrupt government, America is extra sensitive to this type of stuff. Look what just happened to Rudy. This kind of baggage would weigh the Clintons way down in a run against McCain, who has always stood for cleaning up government.
These disastrous events, leading to and including this Iraq misadvdnture, have been underway since Americans allowed this president to illegally take the office. They then permitted him to benefit from 9/11, despite his neglect to obvious signs leading to this tragedy. His unprecedented environmental sellouts that will affect us for decades fueled by his war on science only add to the outrage.
By tolerating such unprecedented abuses to our system,Americans have only themselves to blame for the damage to our planet from the antics of this zealot and his supporting special interests.
I'm a coward. I admit it. I'm afraid to do much but I have four really incisive bumper stickers on the back of my pickup. Several people have tried to run me off the road. But as I cruise thru various parkinglots I have seen almost no bumper stickers.
Aditionally, a huge percentage of the public obviously are in favor of the status quo, judging from the primary results. I mean, REALLY, who in his or her right mind would want McCain or Giuliani or Clinton?
Where are the people who would revolt?
There was a suggestion in an article in Harpers a couple of months ago that we should have a general strike on election day last November but it went nowhere. This stimulus handout is going in the opposite direction, too. What we need is for people to QUIT BUYING.
50-70% of people have an IQ of 100 or lower (my dog probably has an IQ of 70). Most of those who vote are 50 years or older and get their news from MSM. The under 40 crowd does not vote in any significant numbers. They may be better informed, but they are basically spectators and do not matter.
The Founding Fathers wanted the Electoral College to vote for President, and the state legislature to vote for the Senators. The only people the dumb critters were meant to vote for at the Federal level were the Representatives. Once we got rid of that, and allowed women to vote for the best looking guy (:>), it was all over.
I mean, look who the front runners are today, Hillary and McCain, and this race started out about the war?. Now the economy is an issue and McCain who admits it is not his strong point is still running strong, while Hillary is owned by the Wall Street financiers who caused the mess.
Laughing too hard to continue.
sjc_1 wrote:
"Considering how close the elections have been and that 1/2 of the adults do not even vote, I would not be too sure."
If you do not even bother to vote, you REALLY get the government you deserve.
First post by Militantliberal hit this spot on....gotta go, my OJ/Spears email notice just beeped, and my cell phone is being updated with newest ringtone that I got with easy credit, while Edwards and Kucinich are silenced, blowhards like William Kristal, Rove and other retreads get a loud voice. NLCB has voted or not voted at all for this administration, no citizen left behind, in this mess brought about by the GOP and it's headmaster, GWB.
FDR saved capitalism more than the US.
But as for your fantasy, I wouldn't count on it. The Republicrats have had 150+ years at bat, and I don't think anything like you describe has ever happened. They've been bred to whimper in mock protest.
LeeAnnG. You are right.
Where, oh where is there any hope left.
John Edwards endorses Barak. After, two assasanation attempts, Barak is elected . Edwards is appointed attorney general. All of Bush regime is held to account, and hauled off to jail. Barak gets pissed off at corporations, and the money handlers, and tells them to go to hell. Transforms himself into FDR type, and the USA is saved.
I'm curious...Are there some posters/readers here who agree with me that perhaps the ideal solution is for the United States of America to break up into six or seven smaller countries? And get rid of the nuclear weapons arsenal. There is already a secession movement underway in Vermont, and I suspect there are quite a few other people in other states who have considered this option. Of course it isn't practical when you have a majority of the populace brainwashed into still believing in the United States of America as a viable political/economic entity. With the huge debt this country has accumulated since the Reagan years and the trillions in obligations like pensions which are unfunded, it seems pretty clear that a reckoning is coming sooner rather than later.
We are feeling the frustration of hyper change because we do not have the social architecture to handle it. We are attempting to use eighteenth century models and ideas to handle twenty first century problems. Our models are centralized and sluggish and quickly become overwhelmed by the rapid appearance of complex problems. Add to that the centralized nature of wealth, i.e. congressional control and we have little prospect of anything but accumulating unresolved problems. Our leaders speak of change but have no knowledge of the architecture of change and so little will happen. Congress is unwilling to give up or even amend centralized power. Centralized power is a prescription for an American trainwreck. Those of you at or near the bottom have already felt the trainwreck but since there are no accpetable lines of meaningful communication to the top, your needs are being ignored. The middle class ignored and were even openly hostile to the hardships of the poor. Now the middle class is being looted and there is still no meaningful architecture to stem the bleeding. So it becomes a zero sum game of centralized power and wealth with no chance of recovery under the present system.
Those of us who have tried for decades to "fix it" were reminded that "if it ain't broke don't fix it." It was broke and now it appears broken beyond redemption.
thank you LeeAnnG. so how and where and when does this revolution begin? better start before marshal law creeps and seeps into our lives. when bush and cheney, two of the lowest life forms on this planet, are allowed to continue their destruction and waste of a fairly decent society, without even a whimper from the right, how and where and when?
so you think the country was divided after the last two "elections"? just wait until the seeds of revolution begin to sprout. it will be brother against brother, mother against daughter. how many people are willing to stand up for their rights, stand up against friend and family? now? today? in this country of sloppy laziness, ignorance, ineptitude, get-rich-quick mentality, do you really think a revolution could happen? think back to the 60's. there was enough youth and energy and independent thinking and turmoil for that great era to occur. today, we are owned and controlled by american idol, screwball bill o'reilly (watch out, he's coming to get all of us - prick), dancing with the stars, and on and on.
as in correcting the problems with our country, somehow, someway, revolution requires a bit of leadership. i see too much stupidity and complacency for it to happen. having said all that, when and if said revolution wants to make some noise, count me in.
sjc_1 - Not voting is a vote! However, fiddling with numbers is a highly paid marketing skill.
bakunin - Got property in Paraquay? Can you swim?
annabelle - The internet police are here - thare in ur cookies!
zoya - Got U.S. property? Any?
kegbot1 - Hate doesn't stop them, or even worry them...what's hate doing to you?
Quality Time - Thanks for the most heartening quote by Al. However, things can go many different ways by the next SOTU.
sarge - Good Work!
Texas - You buying our airfare?
frank 1569 - Won't bring back all the casualties (why are we called 'casual'ties?)
greenerthanthou - Tell it like it is!
TheLorax - Your/my turn is right around the corner!
hedology - Bingo! Amen!
trimmer - Right thinking - Way to go!
kernel - 'They' haven't left yet - better pray 'they' do...
LeeAnnG - It's already decided..the script is done and now the players read their lines. The only 'live' action are sitting in our seats either sitting on our hands..or throwing tomatoes...or applauding..or sleeping. A few of us are refusing to purchase cute little - or big - trinkets....or selling our family cars..or not paying our income taxes.
C'mon, let's hear some other creative appropriate responses from the peanut galleries before China stops buying our debt!
Where have you been for the past seven years Gail ?
After 9/11 W trusted Americans to take his advice to go shopping. W then assured that inflation remained understated for 3-4 years to allow Americans to tap the equity in their homes (and then some) to allow them to keep shopping. Now he is going to borrow more money from China and give it to Americans to go shopping. W's mantra has been that shopping will save America, and Americans have not breached his trust in them to follow through !
"So long as we continue to trust the people, our nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the state of our Union will remain strong,"
WTF was he talking about? When did this president ever give a s$it what the people ever had to say about anything? "As we continue to trust the people"? Trust them to do what?.....Watch the superbowl game while their government is undermining the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution and therefore, their freedom and liberties?
I wouldn't trust most of the people in this country to walk my dog!
The state of the Union is exactly as it should be and it will get worse. Hello? America is spending as much as THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED ON "DEFENSE" while living on borrowed money. What else can be expected except bankruptcy? If you are going to spend that kind of money you have to have a return. The problem is there isn't any. When a gangster can't make money even though he's breaking legs, you know the gig is up. The gangster then has to get a job!!
BAKUNING: An almost perfect summation. I believe you have the right idea.
WWII resulted in serious damage to all of the industrial competitors to the US and the US held great advantages for the next three decades. As those advanatages began to disappear in the 1970s, US elites saw their prospects for continuous expansion dwindle, but Reagan gave them hope to continue that expansion by making prey of the US middle class as well as increasing US domination of weaker nations, particularly those with valuable natural resources. Now the middle class is spent and the pillage of the world is not working out so well, and so the US economic system is on the brink.
And it does appear that the US must collapse before it will mature. The dishonest appeals to American exceptionalism in foreign policy and American individualism at home have convinced far too many childish suckers to support policies inconsistent with their own interests, and inconsistent with the long-term interests of the US, and only a collapse will convince those suckers that they have been had and force them to leave their childish opinions and beliefs behind.
It is nearly unbelievable how our country has been conned into the diaster we now have in only seven years. It does no good to run down the only people we have with a chance of putting in a new bunch. Yes, our chosen ones are gone, now go with Clinton or Obama, whichever you prefer, and leave the mudslinging to the right wing fundamentalists, who are masters at that, at least. The future of our country is at stake and we need to get behind what we have left or all go down except for Bush and all his rich cronies. Can we take four or eight more years of this disastrous kind of administration
thank you, LeeAnnG,
for articulating my thoughts so well. i don't know about the rest of the u.s., but MY FAMILY and MY FRIENDS and I don't deserve what's being done to this country.
i wish i was braver, and louder, and more active than i have been to date, but i keep striving to understand the problems facing the u.s. and raise the consciousness of everyone i come into contact with.
it seems to be the nature of things that people don't act until a crisis is upon them. the elites are doing a masterful job of keeping the masses in the dark, and most people just aren't equipped with the analytical tools necessary to see through the smokescreen. it doesn't follow, however, that they deserve the current state of affairs, or what is surely to come.
I like what you say, LeeAnnG, and I admire your spirit. Unfortunately, at least so far, enough "We" do buy into this Fascist proganda to bring the elections close enough to manipulate by these criminal powers. If "We" don't get thoroughly disgusted and revolted enough to find a powerful outrage, strong enough to overcome our fear of disgrace, imprisonment, death, very soon, then, as someone said earlier, the only change will be in going from bad to worse.
It could not have been planned better. It must be deliberate.
Reduce the 98% of the population US of I to standards of living of a third world country. Soon they won't be able to afford electricity, petrol or cars, and you can reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by the 90% required to save the earth.
With civil disorder, breakdown, no health care, a large part of the population might find it necessary to kill their neighbors. After all, all of civilian US is armed to the teeth. A military government is a certainty with dead democracy.
You cannot have nice people with hope in the white house. Someone has to bring human consumption and numbers under control.
The majority have been conned into "more of the same."
There is an old Arab adage that really applies to the U.S.:
"People get the rulers they deserve."
And 13 facts about our society which only came to be through the approval of the majority support the adage.
The common denominator and precipitant CAUSE of all these "shameful" sorrows, both foreign and domestic which Weissman so accurately articulates is only one whispered word; EMPIRE.
Let us stop whispering (or failing entirely to speak) the name of this cancerous pathology; Empire.
Let us start to shout the name of our common enemy and oppressor of liberty, democracy, and a true republic of representative government; Empire.
The following is just such a loud, clear, and public articulation of the scourge of Empire, and an absolutely 'Jeffersonian' call to action which Justin Raimondo made in today's AntiWar:
"What is needed, however, is a more solid movement, one that incorporates non-electoral means to achieve its goals, as the essential element of a long-range strategic vision for the growing Left-Right alliance against imperialism abroad and authoritarianism on the home front. That is the real challenge, and electoral politics matters, at this stage, only insofar as it furthers a larger organized movement operating on many fronts."
The United States is spending much more than $700 billion a year on the military. And yet the war profiteers want a stimulus?
Giving a thumbs up to evil Dubyuh in 2004 took one hell of a lot of complacency. Stay the course- heh heh...... The US national mantra. Since American Idol et al really DO speak to the soul of America it seems- that that innocent soul is up for one hell of a shock. Ignorance is not always bliss.
Stock up on essentials and get ready to ride out the third world storm. Idiocracy may be the next reality.
seems the dems should mention some of this in their speeches and platform. looked high and low and found nada. cockburn in the nationj reorts that the bond rating company moodys rated usa bonds as aaa, the highest rating. huh? we are bankrupt by any sense of the word. makes sense however when you also learn that moodys suggest an end to social security and medicare to further improve business prospects for the us. disaster capitalism indeed. . .
Nowhere in the corporate controlled mass media was there any alternative "state of the union" message. This brief list mentions a few things, tips of "icebergs" perhaps.
What is missing is any ability to "connect the dots" to relate all these different "problems" to the systemic problem of the steady decline and transformation of U.S. capitalism.
Progressives forever think that by replacing figurehead Bush with Obama or Clinton, that a fundamental change is possible.
Kucinich and Edwards were forced out of the primary election because each were bringing up issues and "contractions" (listed nicely in this article) that our corporate overlords and masters do not want the people to ever think about. Certainly not to start thinking about WHY these things are happening, or WHY are these problems never solved.
We must take back the corporate control of government, end privatization of the federal government, and restore democracy. A government "of, by and for the people" and not a government "of the wealthy, by any means necessary, for the profit of a few".
"We" don't keep voting for these crooks. "We" don't get a chance to vote for whom we want, and when we do - for example with Nader - "we" get chastised for wasting our votes and putting Bush in the Whitehouse (a bunch of crap if I've ever heard it).
Almost everyone I know was in favor of Kucinich's agenda. Even those who didn't approve of his ideas often commented on his integrity. But he was more than marginalized by the press and other media.
The next president is likely to be the person decided upon by corporations, the media, and the wealthy. No one else gets a voice, no one else has the money, and no one else has a chance. It's not a coincidence that Hillary Clinton is the front runner in the Democratic race, in spite of Obama's good showings.
The last "election" was anything but. George W. came out looking like the winner, more or less, in both elections due to fraud, voter disenfranchisement, smear campaigns, and dirty politics on a large scale.
When a president has a 31% approval rating, while nearly the entire country is pounding the drums for impeachment and congress sits on its hands refusing to even "put it on the table," the citizens of this country have no voice.
Many of us have worked on campaigns for the underdog, marched in protest, written letters to our newspapers and legislators, and engaged in a multitude of progressive activities while our country has been stolen out from under us by power hungry bullies and cowards. Saying we get the government we deserve is like saying a rape victim deserves what she got because she was wearing a skirt that was too short.
Blame the victim all you want, but the vast majority of us do not deserve a Bush or Clinton dynasty. We do not deserve to be pushed into a failing economy by corporate interests. We do not deserve to be offered the lesser of two evils in election after election.
Change usually occurs when enough people have had their fill of corruption, greed, and cronyism. Clinton can get up and announce that it took a president to finalize the civil rights legislation, but it took real people to march, sit on buses, and even riot to initiate it. It's a terrible thing to believe that some kind of grass roots revolution is the only way to stop the destruction of our country, but if things don't change, I believe people will finally be fed up enough to rise up. I hope the revolution is non-violent, but I believe it's coming.
We're all Wage Slaves now. The system is broken and can not be repaired. It must collapse before We the People get our country back.
Bring it on!!!!
Has anyone ever thought of how a slave must have felt? Imagine looking around at an unfair, broken world and wonder if or when it will ever change. It must have been horrible to have to work for the rich man that had everything when you had nothing. Many of the slaves weren't chained because they knew there was nowhere to run. There were so many of them but there was no voice, no say, their government totally ignored them. Any one of them that spoke out was hurt or killed. If for some reason they had any property that was valuable, it could be taken away from them at any time. They had no hope and no forseeable future. It must have been so hard to live in a world like that.
It's a good thing I live in today's world where I don't have to... live like.. a slave.
Bakunin, I had posted the same sort of thoughts on my blog.
Many people seem to believe that the American Way of Life is something that we've all enjoyed since the establishment of our country.
The ability to make a comfortable living at decent wages, and for eight hours a day, with weekends and holidays and some protections-this has only been around since about 1947, and mostly for white educated males who went along with the status quo. There was some opening up to women and minorities in the 70's, just in time for some people to establish enough security to weather the backlash against the working class unleashed by Reagan in the 1980s.
Most baby-boomers think of themselves as "middle class", because they were brought up in relative comfort, especially compared to their Depression era parents. But baby-boomers keep their standard of living by having more than one wage earner in the family, coupled with massive debt.
America's ruling class has always been willing to have it's working class dirt poor, ignorant and short-lived. They were pushed back by worker unrest in the 1930s, but they're coming back with a vengeance now. They want to dismantle what is left of the New Deal, the worker and environment protections of the 70s and, just for good measure, the rights established in the eighteenth century by the Bill of Rights.
We working class Americans won't get anywhere if we believe that our good life was bestowed upon us by benevolent bosses. It wasn't. Our ancestors fought for every scrap we have and we betray them by giving it up so easily.
Great rap, esarge!
More, please!
So the point is, what? "Making the tax cuts permanent" won't solve all of the above almost instantaneously? Huh...
Braziliation of the USA is at work. A visit to Sao Paulo shows where the USA will be in a decade.
"But they have their roots in a bipartisan policy approach over the last three decades, favoring deregulation, handover of government assets to corporations (privatization)"
What this actually amounts to is the socialization of risk (We The People put up the capital) and privatization of the profits (we don't even get our investment back!)
militantliberal: I disagree.
the choices have been tweedledum and tweedledee.
genuine candidates are soon winnowed out,
giving we the people zero clout.
the system is rotten beyond fixin'
this Bush guy is worse than Nixon!
The new crop gives me little hope,
Hillary's bought. McCain's a dope.
The big guys have complete control.
kids starving, corporations on the dole.
How much worse will it have to be,
For people to wake up and break free?
The world is a dangerous place to live not because of those who do evil but because of those who watch and let it happen. Albert Einstein.
We are poised once again to let the Republican corporate machine run roughshod over well-intentioned but sadly inept and misguided Democrats, and by the next State of the Union Address, things will be even worse.
"This must be the Union people want, because they keep voting for it." There it is; there's your answer. The people of this nation: uninformed, apathetic, bored, scared, witless, heedless and half-assed, keep voting for the gangsters, sociopaths, liars, thieves, and general scum of the earth called Republicans and Democrats because that's honestly, really what they want. Why else would they keep voting for it? How many times do you have to bend over, grab your ankles and take it straight up the ass before you realize you've been had?
Yes I hate George W. Bush. But its not an unnatural or unfounded hate.
I hate this man for what he has done to my country and what he has done to the Middle East.
I hate him for his lies and his casual decisions that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.
I hate him for what his policies have done from Main Street to New Orleans.
I hate him for debasing the United States in the eyes of the world.
I hate him for who he is - a pampered prince of privilege who had everything handed to him from day one who seems to believe that God anointed him for his life.
He is a murderer, a liar and a master thief.
And his last State of the Union, with all its lies, its smirks and its Reichstag like fawning adulation from the traitors in the audience made me sick for my country and my children's future.
http://badamerican.wordpress.com/
granted, a basketball game on another station was, mentally, much more stimulating than
listening to bush threaten everyone with his ability to say the word veto (can you count how many times?), so i failed to watch his completed "state". perhaps i couldn't stomach his cheerleader section nor the standing ovations (can you count how many times?). or the combined smirks of cheney/pelosi/bush (can you count how many times?) sooner or later, someone would present the state of the union.
thank you, mr. weissman, for the well-researched and informed article. now, getting those in charge of our government to acknowledge these sad and horrible facts.
and the corporations will continue to offshore all the decent jobs.
It required two world wars to get Europe to grow up. It'll take at least that much devastation to get America out of diapers. The US has been in trouble since Ike warned Americans about the military-industrial complex. Americans refused to listen. They're still refusing. They're currently stoned out on all that "hope" and "change" and "America is the greatest country in the world" crap delivered by the power-hungry jokers running for political office. Personally, I see it as high time that the empire imploded. I look forward to it.
The "people" gets tossed some bones to chew on, and stopped watching the house, which is being robbed from the back door.
Keep chewing 'merica, soon the bones will be those of your children, bleaching in the sun.
The above description of the US can only be interpreted as the definition of a fascist third world nation.
As long as the big corporations control the media and the campaigns and the elections there isn't much chance of any change. The election system is in shambles. The media refuses to make the candidates accountable for their platforms (if they have one.) It is far more entertaining to throw cow patties than actually have ideas of any merit. Those candidates who did speak out were silenced by the media, which is the biggest of all of the crimes unleashed in the last few year. Hold on to the internet for dear life. It is all that is left.
I'm just glad this wasn't the speech where he tried to convince the nation that war with Iran was necessary. I enjoyed the speech being dull and boring.
For the past three decades the US has been living a myth based on the huge advantages the country enjoyed after WWII. For roughly a quarter of a century after the war the American middle class did relatively well as a result of the GI Bill and other favorable factors, but by the 70's those favorable conditions began to unravel. The country fell into stagflation, a stagnant stock market, and Jimmy Carter's "malaise." After Vietnam and Watergate the country seemed to have lost its way. Then along came Ronald Reagan and his "morning in American" campaign theme. The Reagan administration marked the beginning of the downward spiral of empire which has brought us now to the very brink of a super-catastrophe. Irresponsible economics, enabled by creditors who should have known better, concentration of wealth at the very top, and most dangerous of all, the financialisation of the economy with arcane derivatives and other investment instruments have brought us now to the edge of an abyss. We are ill-equipped to deal with the effects of a financial meltdown, but that is clearly what is in the cards. All the technique of monetary and fiscal policy can't forestall the coming reckoning.
Considering how close the elections have been and that 1/2 of the adults do not even vote, I would not be too sure.
I agree with "militantliberal"...Another way of putting it might be with the famous quote "You get The government that you deserve". I guess that this is the government that we deserve. :)
This must be the Union people want, because they keep voting for it.
Bakunin- You're right
Anarchy forever - it's coming soon to to a neighborhood near you. It is what happens when Hope recedes
Okaaaaaay...
We've carved out the Dark Side pretty well here. Now let's carve out the Light Side!!!
KIDS: Freely vaccinated at birth, age six, etc. with mercury-free antibiotics and disease vaccinations.
SCHOOLS: Fully funded. Para-professionals added at a living wage to assist teachers. Incenives for schools who can achieve benchmarks. Benchmarks fairly set. Food affordable for everyone. Resources attainable. Overstructure bleed-off severely limited. i.e. "Service Units," etc.
HEALTH CARE: Single payer. Free Band Aids, Aspirin, etc. at centralized locations to spare the ER's needless visits. Needed operations paid in full.
Optional operations, by degree.
RETIREMENT: Investment options with manditory salary deductions for young workers. Full benefits (Defined benefits) for long-time contributors.
BUSINESS: Overall: 25/75 Small business/Large business.
SMALL BUSINESS: "Start-ups qualify for immediate loans of $250,000 upon qualification.
CURRENT SMALL BUSINESSES: (Under $1,000,000,000) gross per annum, 2 Year tax moriatorium. File for same.
BUSINESS: File and pay 5.5% on total sales. Domestic and international.