EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
America's Shameful Leadership
OK, Barack Obama has not exactly turned out to be Mount Rushmore material, but — good God! — the petulant pettiness of right-wing Republican congressional leaders has turned them into a national embarrassment.
America has big needs right now. But those needs are not even being addressed, because little whiney ideologues like Eric Cantor, the GOP's House majority leader, keep throwing hissy fits, demanding that they get their way, or there'll be no way.
Of course, their way — on everything from tax policy to Wall Street regulation — is always the corporate way. Their plutocratic theories were exactly what was tried throughout George W's eight-year reign, and they failed spectacularly. Yet Cantor & Crew are now pushing the same nonsense — the very policies that caused America's economic crash, which continues to crush grassroots people. "But it's ideologically correct," cries Little Eric, "so we and the Koch brothers won't stop screaming until you give us more of it."
They are so insanely obsessed with extremist anti-government dogma that they have even hitched their star to the reviled Lords of Wall Street — the only group in America with a lower public approval rating than that of Congress itself!
Bankers are furious that Democrats created a new regulatory agency last year with real clout to protect consumers from the assorted rip-offs and frauds that banks keep inventing. So, in a perverse political reflex, Republicans have rushed to protect Wall Street's gougers from us gougees, locking arms (as well as their minds) in a ridiculous "Save-the-Poor-Bankers" stand.
Stamping their tiny feet, they say they'll block Obama's nominee to head the agency until Democrats let them rewrite the law to make the agency toothless. In fact, they've declared that they'll block anyone that Obama nominates, no matter how qualified.
Great — a government of dogmatists, by temper tantrum, for corporate elites. How pathetic.
Meanwhile, both the GOP Congress and the Obama White House continue to ignore America's greatest economic need: good jobs.
Beaucoup of them. Now.
As Bob Dylan famously wrote, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." Especially when the wind is right in your face, howling at gale force. While Washington fiddles with the knobs and levers of budget reduction, America's great working class is being blown down by harsh economic winds. Our country's political and financial elites, sitting in the comfort of their power centers, however, don't seem to see, hear or care. If the elites just looked around, here are just a few of the real-life indicators that would hit them right in the face:
— In Central Texas, a surge in poverty is now severely straining the area food bank, which is struggling with more than a 50 percent increase in demand in the past three years.
— Arizona, which has added only 4,000 jobs in the past year, has 10 unemployed job seekers for every opening — and 45,000 Arizonans are set to lose their jobless benefits in the next few months.
— By the end of the Great Recession in 2009, the median white household in America had lost $36,000 in net worth. Worse, the median African-American household had lost 83 percent of its net worth, which is now down to the financially perilous level of less than $2,200.
— While CEOs of major corporations have jacked up their pay by a fourth since the recession technically ended in 2009, average wages for workers have stagnated. Meanwhile, the price of such basics as food and gasoline have risen relentlessly. Real wages today are 1.6 percent lower than a year ago.
So, who is Washington working to help? Not the hard-hit workaday majority, but those pampered CEOs, who're now averaging more than $9 million a year in pay, and the Wall Street hedge-fund barons who are hauling in as much as $5 billion each!
Suffering from what appears to be incurable ethicalitis, these moneyed narcissists are demanding that officials of both parties make devastating budget cuts in programs that help working families, while also insisting that their own lavish fortunes be spared from even the slightest dings.
What a shameful time in our history! Can't America do better than this?
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
39 Comments so far
Show Allpathologic greed....
we need to come up with a drug to treat THAT !
alternativly, large doses of the radiation, arsenic and mercury they think its ok for my kids to eat and drink might be the drugs of choice.
There is a cure for pathological greed available. Lead poisoning-----administered by Drs. Smith and Wesson.
There is one - psychedelics/entheogens. As Terrence McKenna said, he knows of nothing else that can turn people on a dime like psychedelics. Psychedelics force you to get real and face Reality and face the total truth of what you are. They also show you that humans have the capacity to function at levels of Consciousness-Intelligence light-years beyond conventional-conditioned ego-identity. Waaaay beyond! Like plugging into a Universal Mind so utterly beyond the limited human conceptual mind that there is no way to put it into words.
Psychedelics are Mind-Liberators and that is why they are illegal: a mass psychedelic Awakening would blow the authority and "legitimacy" of the power structures of church, state, materialist science and corporations to smithereens. Yea, verily, into smithereens.
A huge spiritual wave is coming in; whether or not humanity can surf it to a higher destiny, I dont know. Serfs Up!
Go to the website Reality Sandwich for more info on the spiritual wave coming in.
Hey Jim, heres a hint, the Republicans, Democrats and Borat Obama don't give a fuck whats happening to the little people!
roughly said but well said
america has been run by the rich and powerful since the get-go
to paraphrase george carlin - rip buddy - the owners of america, the real owners, want a group of workers who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but not smart enough to sit at their kitchen table and figure out how badly they are getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 years ago
a lot of the sheeple are still trying to get their minds around that one
obummer has turned out to be a wall street shoe shine boy who doesn't seem to have opinions on anything in particular. its hard to understand why he even wanted to be prez cause he doesn't seem to know what to do other than to give up more and more of the social gains accrued over 50 years by our workers and unions
to me he has that vacant mk ultra stare - heavy meds, a thing i know a bit about
the fact that most sheeple have been trained to dislike unions tells me these fools don't even know where their interests lie
let's keep in mind that these elites are not halfway done - they plan to continue to impoverish fellow americans until we are all homeless and jobless
they have poisoned our food with gmo's, poisoned our water with pollutants and chemicals like fluoride, they have over medicated the masses including the criminal over-medification of young children by the millions
america is now among the fattest countries in the world - here is a list:
-1 Nauru-94.5% of population overweight
-2 Federated States of Micronesia- 91,1% of population overweight
-3 Cook Islands-90.9% of population overweight
-4 Tonga-90.8% of population overweight
-5 Niue-81.7% of population overweight
-6 Samoa-80.4% of population overweight
-7 Palau-78.4% of population overweight
-8 Kuwait- 74.2% of population overweight
-9 U.S.A.- 74.1% of population overweight
http://rovemag.com/worlds-fattest-countries-i-guarantee-you-will-be-surprised
half of the population of detroit can't read
http://www.businessinsider.com/nearly-half-of-detroiters-cant-read-2011-5
we incarcerate - by far - more people than any other country in the world including communist china
"One-third of African American male high-school dropouts under age 40 are currently behind bars."
http://www.amacad.org/projects/incarceration.aspx
the public is under a serious multi-pronged attack by the controllers at every level
to answer the question in this article - no jim we do not have any leaders who are going to act on behalf of the citizens
none - never did
And bear in mind that in all those Pacific Islanders listed there, obesity is culturally desirable. The kings and queens of Hawaii, Tonga and other such places were deliberately stuffed by their servants to make them as fat as possible and the richer their subjects the more desirable obesity was. In the United States fatness is not culturally desirable which makes American obesity a cultural aberration.
"They are so insanely obsessed with extremist anti-government dogma..." This is a big reason why we are in the mess we find ourselves in. Take any organization, a corporation, the military, a sports team, then put "leaders" over it that despise its very existence and see how that works out for you.
For example, put someone who hates baseball in charge of the Yankees. As soon as he takes control of the team, he cuts half the players, cuts their pay in half, supplies them with overpriced defective bats and gloves from a no bid contract, and the existing coaches are dumped and new politically connected ones that know nothing about baseball are put in their place.
Then every year that the team comes in last place, the same tactics are tried over and over, and even expanded. All the while the fans are told this is the only way possible to manage the Yankees, and many/most of the fans agree!
Shameful is pointing the finger at only half the criminals.
Will Lowtower ever acknowledge the corruption of his beloved party?
Heh. Take a look at this little gem of Hightower's and answer the question for yourself:
"Bankers are furious that Democrats created a new regulatory agency last year with real clout to protect consumers from the assorted rip-offs and frauds that banks keep inventing."
Real clout. Sh . . . yeah, right.
"Can't America do better than this?"
No, Jim, it can't.
The government has been thoroughly corrupted, the country is adrift, and what passes for political leadership is morally and ethically bankrupt.
The country will do better only when people finally wake up to the reality that we no longer live in a democracy and insist on change.
We've got to more than insist on change. We've tried that with Obama, and it isn't working. We've got to make some changes: There comes a time when it becomes necessary to alter OR ABOLISH repressive regimes. We have that right framed in the the Declaration of Independence. More than a right, for the sake of future generations, it is our duty.
Here's a YouTube video that was posted this morning. It's about the debt fiasco and the failures of Republicans (mostly Saxby Chambliss) and Obama. It's a remake of the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCpu8QhWS0w
A female from TX called into C-Span this morning with the perfect solution to the debt problem - cut out SS and Medicare completely, and make seniors "bunch up together" and also live with and be the responsibility of their kids.
Heck. Why not just treat us like the chickens and cattle. Put us in pens stacked on pens ten stories high as soon as we turn 65, and dump food into us a couple of times a day. And when we die, pile us in a heap somewhere, and burn us when the heap gets high enough.
Twelve ways to help fix America:
1) Stop the wars. All of them. Apologize to the families of the people we have slaughtered. Make a sincere attempt at atonement and/or restitution to the victims of our foreign policy. If we need oil or manganese or whatever, let us pay the owners for it with something they want, and not bomb the crap out of them or overthrow their government while pretending to do them a favor.
2) Abolish the Department of Homeland Security, especially the TSA.
3) Make it a federal crime for any government official to write or say the word "Homeland", in any context except satire.
4) Revoke the legal "personhood" of corporations.
5) Get rid of the Federal Reserve. Make finance a public utility.
6) Make it illegal for the government to borrow a nickel. It has the power, ala Lincoln, to create as much Constitutional money as it needs, whenever it needs to. Politicians who abuse this power can be voted out of office in the next election.
7) Make all voting leave a verifiable paper trail.
8) Institute Medicare for all. If the insurance companies complain, laugh at them.
9) Institute jail time for any politician who votes on any bill without having read it.
10) Let the government provide for the free education for anyone who can demonstrate academic competence.
11) Close Guantanamo and re-criminalize torture.
12) Repeal the USA PATRIOT [sic] Act
A nice list, the only thing I'd add is 13) Try the war criminals who mislead the American public into starting a war of choice based on known faulty information.
good one. Also,
14) Stop bailing out Wall Street and start arresting Wall Street.
Nice idea in theory but it would cause a massive and catastrophic contraction of the real economy. The amount of gold and silver owned by the government would cover only a tiny fraction of the amount of paper (real and virtual) in circulation . . . until hyperinflation balanced the value of the dollar against the amount of precious metals. Then, because of the limited amount of precious metals, lending, even at a microlevel, would become virtually impossible.
We've been there before; Bryan campaigned against it. But his bimetal solution was inadequate even then, and impossible now without catastrophic economic "corrections."
Of course, Peak Oil may just take care of all of this anyway soon enough.
"...it would cause a massive and catastrophic contraction of the real economy..."
I agree. This is one of my several beefs with Ron Paul and his gold fetish.
Instead of gold, or silver, or a combination of those two, or federal reserve notes, why not United States Notes? (aka Greenbacks --like Lincoln issued during the civil war.) They would no more inflationary than Federal Reserve notes have been. They would be issued without the need to pay them back with interest, which debt can never be repaid, since if you put 10 marbles into a bag, you can't remove 11 marbles. Without the vampire banks sucking the lifeblood from the economy in the form of usury, the country would be prosperous in fairly short order. The only drawback I can see is that the oligarchs who currently own the place may have to timeshare their one remaining mega-yacht. Sigh.
Yes indeed. If we can't get rid of the Fed entirely, then we can at least rob it of much of its power by issuing United States Notes. That would have the extra added benefit of starving Goldman Sachs of several billion dollars' worth of unearned income. After all, the Treasury doesn't sell bonds to the Fed; it sells them to Goldman Sachs, which then sells them, at a profit, to the Fed -- an entirely unnecessary and parasitic middleman operation.
I'll just take one among the diversely objectionable things in this article.
Hightower sez:
" They are so insanely obsessed with extremist anti-government dogma..."
The Repugnants who bitch about big guberment are not at all against big government. Rather, they are opposed to anything within our governmental institutions that promotes the common good. They are not at all opposed tp ever bigger standing armies, very costly military bases all over the world, stratospheric military budgets, large prisons, more police, and more intelligence budgets, i.e., any part of the government that enables and defends the private interests of the corporations that finance their campaigns, and that promotes repression of the people's aspirations and maintains the highly rigid political order and class structure of our society.
The indictment of big government by the Rethugs needs to be exposed for the political theater that it is. The expression 'big governement' is a conveniently ambiguous phrase: it is used with a design to deceive and obfuscate.
OIKOS: Right on! This truly is the KEY issue. They love prisons, war, media owernship, and CONTROL of the citizens, especially when money can be made for their peers in any of those "enterprises."
Our government has been hijacked by the rich - take a look at the average worth of the people supposed to represent us - and when you really don't have a serious problem with making a living, you can play ideological games with each other and ego games as well as arranging everything so that you get even richer.
As many self-help books say, "[You] teach people how you want to be treated."
Aware of it or not, we citizens have allowed low political and moral standards and pitiful, thoughtless displays from 'public servants' who have been mislabeled as "leaders". To where? Look where we've been 'led'.
It's time for "individual self-respect and collective self-confidence" which refuses to allow ourselves to be treated badly (and exercises adult restraint from treating others badly, either). Like it or not, we've had a role in this abusive relationship and it's time for us to take responsibility for our part in it and for doing something differently.
Passive-ism, victimhood and complaining don't solve the problem or take responsility for solutions, either. Status quo--theirs or ours--isn't working. Status quo--and insanity, both-- is "doing the same old thing over and over again while expecting different results."
It's time for new ideas, different approaches, creative solutions, imagination, real intelligence, strategies, wholesome goals for civil society, unity. Put pride and ego in the back seat. What are the priorities? Similar to Curly's message in City Slickers, what's the ONE thing we really want from 'public servants'? None of us can do everything. But we can do something. We can work with like-minded individuals who are passionate about that same goal. We can focus on a clear priority, get to work on it, put our hearts into it.
While this isn't any overarching goal, at this point, my suggestion taken from an article I read recently is: If 535 members of Congress are so thoughtless, immature, ineffective and narcissistic as to screw up the economy for everyone, the first checks to be withheld should be the paychecks and health benefits to members of Congress!
Some greedy types seem to be wanting to do the bait-and-switch routine, steal Social Security money which is NOT an 'entitlement program' and belongs to no special interest. Help stop this deceitful language. We've paid for Social Security with our hard-earned money. Social Security is not any 'entitlement' program. It is something owed to us. It is money that belongs to the citizens of the U.S..Social Security is a fiduciary account filled with money American citizens have paid into it. It's not a program just for the elderly, either, many of whom would die in the streets without monthly Social Security checks. No sane individual would allow that. Social Security is actually an insurance program--and we've been paying its premiums--also designed to help orphaned children, disabled individuals, widows and widowers with young children, the elderly.
Stand up for LIFE and the relief of suffering. Stand up for kids and their future.Stand up for the rights of nature. In my view, some of the insanity going on is needless, thoughtless destructiveness that increases suffering and death. That is no 'vision' for civil society. That is insanity.
"If [you] don't stand for something, [you'll] fall for anything." Good news: There are 309 million Americans--and just 535 members of Congress.
Sure, Barred. As if the control of media hasn't hammered disinformation into people to the point many can't think straight. As if many aren't struggling to hold onto jobs NOW, or getting by on lousy food that hardly nourishes. If the reward for standing up is to go to prison, as only those as courageous as a sterling Tim DeChristopher is prepared to do, then please don't turn heavily funded political think-tanks and the Controllers' operations into some pseudo-self help treatise. It sounds like a collective version of, "Your honor, she provoked the rapist."
What reasoning!
Sadly, you misunderstood my comment and its spirit.
Other than the idea about withholding Congressional paychecks, I did not limit or specify ways an individual might 'stand up' which are as diverse as the individuals involved. Rather, I suggested that passive-ism hasn't stopped the abuse and that, if we want change, it's to us to do something differently since much of what we've done hasn't worked.
There's an old expression among men about 'stand-up' guys. This describes heartfelt, principled activity on the part of some men which expresses deep conviction, passion, personal integrity, courage, strength of character. I suggested that, similarly, it's a choice to stand up and take responsibility instead of allowing what 'they' want to rule. I also suggested standing up for life since human needs are going unmet and environmental harm has been great.
I suggested that creativity plays a huge role in problem solving, and that, as desired, there are opportunities to work with like-minded individuals who share similar passions, convictions, goals. Generally, what I'm suggesting is that instead of expecting or waiting around for 'them' to solve the problem, or to respect us or change, we can actually solve problems ourselves, actively respect ourselves, extend compassion to ourselves, help relieve some suffering ourselves. I'm suggesting that we look to ourselves for solutions, new ideas, leadership. My comments had nothing to do with 'pseudo' self-help. They were about actually respecting, caring about and supporting ourselves and future generations in active ways instead of waiting around for 'them' to do it.
Your a good motivator barredowl. We are Americans and we are innovators. We can cause a paradigm shift for the good of our earth in a heartbeat while thinking 7 generations.
don't blame eric cantor for what he is. he is what he is and his district knows that. they are the ones who you , and the rest of america, should blame for voting him in. they are bird of a feather. and why not. they wanted a spokeperson who speak their language( and express their thoughts )of nothingness. he is no different than bachmann whose mouth runs faster than her brain if she has one.it is the cader who attend meetings with loaded pistols straped on their waist. because cantor and his constituents know only this language: intimidating the voters. that is their democracy.
"Can't America do better than this?"
-- Nope. George Carlin has already answered this question perfectly.
"Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents, American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses, American Universities, and they are elected by American citizens.
This is the best we can do, folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces -- GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. If you have selfish ignorant citizens, your gonna get selfish ignorant leaders. And term limits ain't gonna do ya any good... your just gonna end up with a brand new bunch of selfish ignorant Americans.
So maybe, maybe... maybe it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe there is something else that sucks around here. Like, the public. Ya, the public sucks! There is a nice campaign slogan for somebody: The public sucks, fuck hope. Fuck hope. Because if it is really just the fault of these politicians, where are all of the other bright people of conscience? Where are all of the bright, honest, intelligent Americans ready to step in and save the nation and lead the way?
We don't have people like that in this country. Everybody is at the mall, scratching his ass, picking his nose and taking his credit card out of his fanny pack and buying a pair of sneakers with lights in them.
So, I have solved this little political dilemma for myself in a very simple way: On election day, I stay home. I don't vote. Fuck em! Fuck em! Two reasons, two reasons I don't vote. First of all, it's meaningless. This country was bought, sold and paid for a long time ago. The shit that they shuffle around every four years... (air stroking his penis) ... doesn't mean of fucking thing. And secondly, if you vote... you have no right to complain.
People like to twist that around, I know, they say, "Well, if you don't vote you have no right to complain." But, where is the logic in that? If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent people and they get into office and screw everything up... well you are responsible for what they have done. You caused the problem. You voted them in ! YOU have no right to complain. I, on the other hand, who did not vote, who in fact did not even leave the house on election day, am in no way responsible for what these people have done and have every right to complain as loud as I want about the mess YOU created that I had nothing to do with.
So, I know that a little later on you're gonna have one of those really swell presidential elections that you all like so much. You'll enjoy yourself and you will have some fun. I'm sure as soon as the election is over your country will improve immediately. As for me, I will be home that day doing essentially the same thing as you. The only difference is: when I get through masturbating... I'm gonna have a little something to show for it, folks."
Funny, I guess! Do more than vote. Or in your case Mr. Blair, do you do more than not vote. What do you do locally? Local politics is more efficient. Every little bickering helps. What is your area of expertice? How could you contribute to this democracy? Maybe you just like doing things alone!
It's time to shut down the U.S. Murder Machine.
Stay Home Friday, July 29. If you can, stay home from work and do not go shopping.
Call Congress and tell them:
HANDS OFF OUR SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE & MEDICAID!
TAX THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS!
END THE WARS AND BRING OUR TROOPS AND DOLLARS HOME!
Contact Congress: 202-224-3121
Contact Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER
(202) 225-0600
EMAIL: http://www.speaker.gov/Contact/
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID
Phone: 202-224-3542
EMAIL: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
SENATE MINORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL
Phone: (202) 224-2541
EMAIL: http://mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm
"Centrism" has no intrinsic meaning. It is simply a label for waiting to see who is winning before taking sides.
As was said of one English politician "He has sat on the fence for so long that the iron has reached up and entered his soul."
I am optimistic that something will happen before the Ceiling of Damacles falls on our heads However, I am not optimistic that the "fix" will help the vast majority of Americans and especially the unemployed, seniors, the poor, college students, and so forth. The real crisis is much deeper than the current discussion and its not being addressed. Read more at: http://ecosquared.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/3499/
I thought Hightower was smarter than this - OR he's playing us, which is not surprising coming from a Democrat.
The Republicans are simply giving Obama cover so that he can continue to harm the general populace in ways that Bush could only dream of.