Remembering an American Suicide Bomber

Here's a little-known fact:  the worst school-based mass murder in the US took place in 1927, perpetrated in Michgan by Andrew Phillip Kehoe.  A school board member, he was apparently upset about a tax levy for the school that he blew up.  He also killed his wife, burned down his farm, and ultimately blew himself up in a shrapnel-filled car as rescuers gathered at the site of the school explosion, killing several additional people.

The next time one of your right wing friends or family members starts talking about taxes or some similar BS, point out to them the direct connection between American anti-tax zealots and the modern-day suicide bombers that most of them consider to be evil terrorists.

Nauseating

Here is a disgusting positive profile on Mitt Romney by Walter Shapiro, a writer from "eventheliberalTNR."  In classic Villager form, he discusses how "disciplined" and "sober" and "prudent" Mittens is...JUST LIKE GEORGE HW BUSH!

However bad it is, it probably cannot outdo his earlier piece, titled "Why Rick Santorum is more impressive in person than Rick Perry."

Ready a Tumbrel for Mr. Rattner, Please

This is great.  We have a disgraced Wall Streeter complaining about $9/hour wage slaves not having sacrificed enough.  The fact that he can say this and not immediately find himself swinging from a lamp post tells me that the killer asteroid cannot arrive soon enough.

DougJ at Balloon Juice had a post last night about regretting not confronting Fareed Zakaria in a New York restaurant.  Unsurprisingly, and apparently by design, this drew a host of pearl-clutching comments from the tote bag crowd, along the lines of "we're better than that," and "we shouldn't be trying to intimidate the nice journalists like Zakaria."  These people remain willfully unaware that politics is a contact sport, and that elite opinion-makers are part of the political ecosystem, not floating majestically above it.  The few liberal elements of our society that remain did not get enacted through reasoned discussion, but through a combination of pressure, intimidation, and horse-swapping.  Refusal to engage in forceful behavior cedes the field to the other participants who understand how the game is played.

Why Do So Many of the Best Articles on the Economy Appear in Rolling Stone?

Here is a good, lengthy and in-depth article about how Grover Norquist and his fellow anti-tax crusaders hijacked the Republican party completely, leading to the relentless efforts to throw more and more breaks to the super-rich.

Die, Old Media, Die!

Atrios links to an editorial in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  The point of the editorial is to take to task the originator of an on-line petition against Target's requirement that many of its workers come in at midnight on Thanksgiving to prepare for "Black Friday."  The editorial instructs Anthony Hardwick to "buck up" and be glad he even has a job.  This is where we are with traditional media outlets such as daily newspapers and network news shows, and don't even get me started on cable news.  They are happy to toe the corporate line, and do everything they can to put trod-upon workers–or #Occupy protesters, or anyone else pointing out the serfdom being thrust upon most of us–in their place.  Shut up and get back to work, or you'll get us all in trouble.

In contemplating the question, "What purpose do these entities (newspapers, etc.) serve?" I can see how they benefit their corporate masters, but the rest of us, not so much.  I'm sure they'll continue to see their circulation dwindle, and they'll continue to be bewildered about why that might be.

Respect

So, the big flap this week is the decision of Jimmy Fallon's band to play a snippet of "Lyin' Ass Bitch" by Fishbone as Michelle Bachmann came onto the set.  While I find her truly frightening/hilarious, I have to say that this is inappropriate for a presidential candidate, even one who has been proven time and again to have only a passing acquaintance with the truth.  Better would have been not to have her on at all, but if she is an invited guest, she should receive the same level of respect as any other high-profile politician.

How Did We End Up Here?

I used to have a rather negative opinion of the New Yorker's George Packer, mainly on the basis of his credulous support of Bush's excellent adventure in Iraq.  However, he has redeemed himself with a belated admission of having been wrong, and has written a number of incisive pieces on the War of Terror and other misbegotten artifacts from 2001-09.


I am working my way through a lengthy piece he wrote for the September 12 issue of the New Yorker concerning the apparently irreparable rips in the country's political fabric over the last ten years.  In discussing the vicious political attacks from the right wing on anyone raising reasonable, moderate questions about the strategy in Iraq, he writes this:

"From the start, important avenues of inquiry were marked with warning signs by the Administration. Those who ventured down them would pay a price. The conversation that a mature democracy should have held never happened, because this was no longer a mature democracy."

This comment strikes me as absolutely true, cutting to the point.  The US has completely abandoned even the pretence being a serious country.  The spectacle of the current Republican presidential debates merely offers an emphatic punctuation on what has been undeniably true since at least the time of Clinton's impeachment.  We are governed by a crop of elites who have no interest in charting the difficult course the country faces in the new century.  All they seem to care about is scoring cheap political victories and enriching themselves and their wealthy patrons.  


Our elites have given up on the country.  What about the rest of us?

The Best Thing I Have Seen for a While

A very different kind of Rage Comic.

Here's the link to the original Reddit.

Joe Walsh Respects His Constituents

Anyone who voted for this assclown should hang their heads in shame.

You Gotta Get Mad

The OWS phenomenon has been interesting to watch, especially how ineffective the predictable attempts to ignore, ridicule and demonize the protesters have been. From that I surmise that for many, the pressing fear of unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, unaffordable illness, etc. has sharpened their thinking so as to render the usual right wing noise machine relatively less effective.  Too many people have experienced, or know someone close who has experienced, the disastrous effects of this prolonged economic quagmire wrought by an elite that has relentlessly lowered taxes on the rich, cut social spending, and removed the few regulations that protected the commonweal.

I think the next step for progressives should be to ratchet up the rhetoric against the Republicans and Blue-dog Democrats, their mega-rich asshole patrons, and their media enablers.  These people bear the responsibility for the impoverishment of millions, and its time for them to start worrying about angry mobs with torches and pitchforks.  You might retort that lowering ourselves to the level of the O'Reillys, the Coulters and the Hannitys is only going to further degrade the political discourse in the country, but I have news for you:  it's already degraded past the point of redemption.  Plus, tell me, has the cool, rational voice most often employed by liberal voices worked out so well?  At this point, we need our elites to internalize the idea that they could well have a starring role in a remake of the French revolution.  We have to pound them in the media every day, blaming them for everything.  We have to get mean.  We have to get mad angry.

Brooks Gets Pierced

Great take-down of Bobo by Charles Pierce.  Man, I had not realized how much I missed this guy.  His output is prodigious, and his quality is sustained and at the highest level.  Case in point:  his recent post on Eric Cantor, in which he credits Cantor with "the unctuous personality of a third-string maitre d' at a fourth-string steakhouse," and states that his proposals would "use the tax code to cement that inequality from now until Eric Cantor VIII is flunking economics somewhere."     

Ma and Pa Kettle Need to Read This

Brad Reed tells it like it is.

This Is Your God

As people slowly begin to wake up to the reality that a tiny fraction of our society is conducting a non-stop war against the rest of us, I'm reminded of the great, underrated John Carpenter movie, They Live.  Here's the classic scene in which Roddy Piper's character discovers that our world is filled with subliminal messages and that there are hideous aliens among us:

Picking Up Momentum

Seems like the Occupy Wall Street movement has actually managed to force itself on the national media, however grudgingly.  How did they make it past the blackout?

First, video footage of gratuitous use of pepper spray on corralled women by a police lieutenant deputy inspector:

Then, solidarity from other unions, including a bunch of airline pilots:

Yesterday, we had partying investment bankers smugly drinking champagne as they watched the marchers:

Now the protests have spread to Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.  If you have a little change in your pocket, consider donating to provide food for these guys.

Buried

Ever wonder how news orgs decide what to cover?  It's not always about "what's the biggest story?"  Hundreds of thousands marched against the Iraq war in the US and millions overseas, and it was barely reported, with the numbers minimized when it did receive passing mention.

Here's something going on in New York that you may not have heard about.

Interesting Flowchart for Republican Readers

http://front.moveon.org/picking-from-the-field-of-9-gop-candidates-a-hilarious-flowchart/

What Driftglass Said

John Cole brought this excellent smackdown of David Brooks to my attention.  It's not that long, so just go and read the whole thing.  The last two paragraphs are for the ages.

A Leopard Cannot Change Its Spots

I am shocked, shocked!  Imagine my surprise that the Conservative government in Britain is imposing policies that will disproportionately hurt those at the lower end of the income scale.

Then and Now

If you look at Robert Reich's graph, you get the impression that something big happened around 1980.  I wonder what that was...?

Labour Day

Just a short reminder that Labo(u)r Day has not been around that long.  According to Wikipedia, we owe its origins to typographical workers in Toronto, who were striking for a 58 hour (!!!) work week.  When the leaders of the strike were arrested under Canada's antiquated labour laws, another demonstration was held in early September, and this became an annual "labour festival" that inspired the creation of an official holiday...first in Canada, then in the US.

Given the currently ascendant Galtian philosophy that human capital is a "fungible resource" made up of easily interchangeable "parts" (i.e., workers), one wonders when the previously fringe idea of abolishing this holiday will work its way into the mainstream of Republican ideology.

Rewarded for Treason

Great post by Thers.  The destructive practices of the entrenched right wing establishment have been very lucrative over the last couple of decades.  Given the existing reward system, what is the incentive to change?  The question:  can those incentives be reduced, or can suitable disincentives be implemented?

This Is How Empires End

Great quote at the end of a post from the interesting labor-oriented New Zealand blog, The Standard:

This is what happens at the end of empires. The interests of the elite become completely divorced from the interests of the ordinary people. Factions in the elite fight intensely amongst themselves, rather than looking outwards to tackle their shared challenges. They create crises for petty political advantage, which ultimately weaken the empire and accelerate the fall.

The millionaires in Congress and the millionaires who back them feel no personal sake in the health of their economy and don’t feel the need to plan responsibly for the future. They do not think about the future of their country anymore, they think about how to win the next battle. How to hurt the other side, even if it means hurting the economy. Everything becomes just a political pawn, even defaulting on debt, even decimating the services that millions rely on when they are sick or out of work.

Just belatedly discovered Freddie deBoer's post from last January.  It's lengthy, but includes a lot of good stuff about the absence of any truly left-wing viewpoint in our discourse.  Being new to his blog, I looked at some of his recent posts and found this one, stating his basic political creed, to be excellent.  In particular, I enjoyed this:

Can anyone claim that the Obama administration has done anything whatsoever to advance my interests? Not a day goes by where I argue politics online without some Obama supporter hurling invective at me and insisting that I have no choice, that if I refuse to vote for Obama I am in essence voting for Michelle Bachmann, that it's a two party system and I should just take it and like it, or, most absurdly, that he secretly is pursuing my agenda and I'm just too stupid to read the tea leaves and SEE.

What Kthug Said

Great blog post by Krugman, pointing out the destructive effect of the Villager cliché of "both sides do it."

Here's the concluding remark:  "Pundits who won’t call out extremism without pretending that it’s symmetric aren’t a big part of our problem, but they are a part of our problem."


UPDATE:  Today he has a full column up on the same subject, basically accusing the "cult of balance" of actively contributing to the destruction of the country.

...And the Villagers Circle the Wagons When One of Their Own is Criticized

"...most substantive show on cable news," says Howie the Putz.

Life During the Bush Years Explained

"A sane person to an insane society must appear insane."

Kurt Vonnegut, in "Welcome to the Monkey House."

We Stand On Guard for Thee

Happy Canada Day, everybody.

After What Happened, These People Can Never Be Taken Seriously

What Digby said.

Brilliant Comment

Roy Edroso's Alicublog is one of my favourites, for its trenchantly funny analysis of the Zhdanovite tendencies in today's conservative movement as well as lots of general right-wing insanity.  Almost as good as Roy's posts are the comments--I honestly believe that his site has the best commenters on the web, many of whom should be writing their own blogs.

Today Roy added a post about some typical Victor Davis Hansen drivel regarding the theft of his chainsaw and how entitlement programs are the root cause.  Many, many hilarious and biting comments followed, but I want to single out this one, which I reproduce below in its entirety, with apologies to "Jennifer."

I think there's another possibility here - in fact, the most likely one - that being that the chainsaw & copper wire snatchers have been paying quite close attention and have figured out that the only people who are really rewarded by this society anymore are those who lie, cheat, and steal.  Perhaps instead of the nefarious influence of 44-year-old movies made by liberal directors they've been watching current "reality" TV shows produced by conservative nihilists, for whom the bottom line is the only "artistic" consideration, and have figured out that flashing a bare crotch at a camera is a lot more likely to put food on your family than setting tile in a McMansion that no one can afford to buy, which is why no one will hire you to set tile in it, and that if offers of big cash for crotch-flashing are not forthcoming, stealing a chainsaw is the next best option.  Or perhaps they were merely paying attention in 2008 - 2009, when government labored mightily to reward the people who destroyed all those tile-setting jobs by giving them lots of money in return for their fraud and larceny, and while the media and various VDH types continued to laud them as the only truly "productive" members of society.  Maybe, just maybe, they've learned the real lesson that this country teaches these days:  if you want to get ahead, the way to do it is by taking what others have worked for and by pretending that swiping it was the true act of "producing."   

Perhaps, indeed, VDH has just inadvertently made an airtight case as to why we should be taxing the shit out of the investor and CEO classes, inasmuch as "human nature rises to the occasion when forced to work and sinks when leisured and exempt."  I'll buy that premise, because its natural results are on display throughout our ravaged and degraded economy & society.  And I didn't even need to lose a chainsaw to see it.

Media Complicity, Part 34917

The effort to disenfranchise voters (at least, the "wrong" kind of voters) has accelerated across the U.S.  In a functioning democracy with an engaged news media, this would be news.  The fact that is is not being reported should not surprise anyone who has been watching the mainstream media abdicate any sort of truth-telling role over the last 30 years.  They have cast their lot with an out-of-control gang of demagogues and plutocrats, and should be viewed as part of that team by anyone who cares about the country.

These Are the Degraded Times In Which We Live

It's hard to believe how this "Fauxbama" guy Reggie Brown convinces himself that this is how he should make a living.  I guess he has to worry about mortgage payments just like regular guys.

The Last Word on Weiner

Glenn Greenwald cruelly, and thoroughly, skewers the hypocritical perfumed fops of the beltway press corps who are all clucking with disapproval over the shenanigans of Anthony Weiner.

Most People Never Have to Face the Fact...

...That At the Right Time, the Right Place, They're Capable of...ANYTHING.

Noah Cross really was the ur-Republican.

Republican Politics Explained

Doug J at Balloon Juice nicely captures the bottom line driving this Republican demand that massive entitlement cuts must be made, NOW, or they'll kill the economy.  They WANT to screw you.  It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Deficit Drivers

I don't necessarily think the deficit should be ignored, though I do think that at this point in time the employment situation is far more destructive than the deficit, and also much more amenable to corrective measures that would actually help on a meaningful time-scale.  But IF you really believe that the deficit needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, you need to look at what is contributing to it.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities offers a very telling discussion of this, with a useful chart.  No surprise:  Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy and the wars are among the biggest contributors.

Take-home message:  irresponsible Republican policies have caused the problem that Republicans now want to fix by reneging on longstanding social contracts.

The Best Law Enforcement Money Can Buy

HuffPo says Columbus, Ohio police maced elderly protesters trying to crash the JPMorgan Chase annual shareholder meeting.  Those police so assiduously defending the rights of the financial elite to conduct their business without any interference from the hoi polloi should take a look at Ohio's Senate Bill 5, which removes their collective bargaining rights.  Maybe they're macing the wrong people.

Simple Charts

In case you're graphically inclined or just don't like to read longer articles, John Cole has it all summarized here.  As if anyone should be surprised about what's really going on with all the union busting.  Graphics courtesy of the Center for Responsive Politics.

This Is What Happens When You Elect Republicans, People

A textbook case of the Shock Doctrine in Pennsylvania.

Get Ready for Trouble

So, today Canada gave a dead-eyed sociopath the parliamentary majority he has been itching for.  I'm pretty depressed that things went down this way, even though it was accompanied by a historically strong showing from the NDP.  But what really concerns me is that that this power-mad control freak is going to interpret this election as a green light to embark on a whole host of "renovations" to Canada, with inevitable lasting damage.

These Things Never Just Happen Spontaneously

In case you've been wondering how all these states (Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Florida) were able to launch coordinated attacks on collective bargaining by public unions, here is a Mother Jones article describing the network of state-level "think tanks" that are behind it.

Esquire on Ron Paul

Here's a nice article by John Richardson at Esquire on the societal forces that breed a Ron Paul or the Tea Party.  It includes in the intro a very powerful paragraph, which I will quote in full:

"Ron Paul is, or seems to be, a very sweet and shockingly naïve man who wants very much to do right by America. But his uncompromising vision of freedom would destroy America, really, by turbo-charging the powerful and the rich, who have shown throughout history that they have (with a few exceptions) zero social conscience and very little concern for the country. Already they've grasped most of the wealth and property in the country. Those in the top percentile are perfectly happy to throw Americans out of work and create jobs in China or Mexico if it means more profits, which they then bank overseas to avoid paying the taxes that create the relatively uncorrupted government under which they thrive. Given the nearly unlimited freedom from regulations and taxes that Republicans like Paul dream of, they'd be completely unrestrained. Eventually the desperate peasantry would realize, as they just realized throughout the Middle East, that the system was completely gamed against them. The result would be bloody revolution."

Now That's Some Straight Talk That We Can All Believe In

DougJ coins the perfect term for the smug, self-satisfied Villagers who pimp the Republican conventional wisdom such as Paul Ryan's abomination:  lazy, innumerate sociopaths.  Apart from being a spot-on description of these menaces, it's also a great band name.

Break Out the Guillotines...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  the financial elite are waging a war on everyone else, and you don't get to choose whether you'll sit this one out.

No surprise

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your modern Tea Party.

You're Fired

This is the predictable outcome of electing radical Republicans to various statehouses around the country.

The Politics of Sadism

Here's a nice post at Esquire eviscerating Paul Ryan's budget "plan" and the underlying ethos of conservative governance.

Haha, Dean Baker Nails It

Great take-down by economist Dean Baker of all the self-satisfied pundits who are talking about Paul Ryan's deficit reduction plan as if it were some amazing and brave piece of policy, as opposed to the usual Republican wealth redistribution scheme.

Another Step on the Road to Serfdom

No, not Hayek's libertarian Road to Serfdom, but the real deal, with peasants scrambling for crumbs dropped by the lord.  Let's squeeze desperate people in a tough employment market by making them work for nothing.  It's a totally logical next step.

George Carlin Knew the Score

Check this out:

From 2005, but it is even more obviously right today than it was then.

Bob Herbert Tells It Like It Is

Unlike most of his ilk, retiring NYT columnist Bob Herbert has not been afraid to call out the greed, violence, racism and ignorance that seem to dominate the landscape in modern America.  Now he is stepping down, and has published his valedictory.  Read the whole thing, but savor this in particular:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely."

In the Service of Our Galtian Overlords

DougJ at Balloon Juice lays it on the line:  when we snicker about people who live in trailer parks or watch NASCAR, we're doing Jay Gould's work.  At the end of the day, there's the rich and there's everyone else.

File Under "Nobody Could Have Predicted..."

Ohio's wingnut governor John Kasich has big plans to privatize things in his state, such as turnpikes and prisons.  Here is a story on the sketchy dealings associated with his plan to sell off five prisons.  Punchline: the facts that his former chief-of-staff has been hired as a lobbyist in Ohio by Corrections Corporation of America (the largest firm in the burgeoning Prison-Industrial Complex) and that his chief of corrections is the former managing director of CCA are purely coincidental, and there is no reason to assume that CCA will end up with a sweetheart deal to buy some or all of these prisons.  When it happens, everyone will express surprise, then shrug and say they didn't see that coming.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Did anyone see anything about this rally in Madison on their network or cable news?  Apparently 100,000+ working people protesting an extremist governor and legislative assembly is not newsworthy (unlike some teapartiers riding their Rascal scooters while wearing tricorn hats and waving signs about Kenya, Marxism and "second amendment solutions."

You Can't Forget About All Those Tax Cuts

Here's another angle on the alleged salary/pension crisis being faced by states that is being used to justify taking away collective bargaining rights.  In short:  tax cuts pushed through a decade or more ago were paid for by underfunding of pension obligations.  Now, surprise surprise, there is not enough money.  What's the answer?  Not revisiting the question of tax rates.  No, instead let's squeeze those lazy, overpaid teachers, firefighters, police, etc.

We've been hearing a lot about how public employees are not contributing enough to their pension funds, which is putting state governments on the way to budget crises.  Hence, the recent spate of efforts to strip them of their collective bargaining rights.  Here is a report from the estimable Dean Baker that rips that story to shreds (warning:  pdf).  Surprise, surprise, the shortfall is due to the bankster-caused stock market meltdown, and is already shrinking due to the recent market rebound.

Perfumed Fops

One of the big problems with gaining a critical mass of middle class people who are aware of the war being conducted against them is the profound failure of the media to report on these issues. For years I have fumed at their bogus "objectivity," in which they would feel obligated to include a right wing counterbalance to any centrist (leftists are mostly shut out entirely from the conversation), whose statements reveal him/her to be either a blatant liar or clinically insane. However, recently we have seen more and mor evidence of major media figures overtly siding with corporations and the mega-rich in any discussion of, for example, taxation (e.g., roll-back of the disastrous Bush tax cuts). This is hardly surprising, since they are employed by multinational corporations, and many are well enough compensated to count themselves among the very wealthy, in not exactly plutocrats.

The media culture in Washington is particularly rank, with constant reminders that these high-profile reporters and pundits count themselves as part of the establishment, sharing cocktail weenies at all the same parties. This dates back at least as far as Sally Quinn's embarrassing screed against the Clintons in the 1990's, leading to the ubiquitous moniker of "villager" for these parochial Washingtonians. An early effort to document the atrocities was launched by the lamented blog Media Whores Online, as well as Bob Somerby's Daily Howler. (The latter repeatedly used the term in the title of this post for the courtier-like behavior of these so-called reporters.)

Anyway, this post is prompted by a recent piece by the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. Milbank has been a bad actor in the past, displaying examples of the "insider/villager" behavior. However, here he blows the whistle on the culture of Washington and the cozy relationship between the media and the politicians.  Maybe we are starting to see a little bit of skepticism...stay tuned.

You Really ARE Losing Ground

Ever get the feeling that you're falling behind, economically?  You might be inclined to think it's because of unrealistic expectations regarding the tempting consumer goods with which we are constantly bombarded in the media.  Or maybe the housing slump.

Or maybe, just maybe, it's because almost all of the economic gains have been going to the top 1% in the country.  Take a look at this very nice, in-depth article by Kevin Drum at Mother Jones for details.

Jon Stewart: The New David Broder?

Digby points out the unfortunate truth about Jon Stewart's recent shows:  he is adopting that false equivalency, pox-on-both-your-houses stance that characterizes so many of the DC Villagers.  I really have to question how much longer I'll be able to watch his show based on some of his recent outings.

Robert Reich on the Marginal Tax Rate

Here is a nice article by Robert Reich that lays out the case for increasing the tax rate on super-high incomes (e.g., 70% on any income over $15M/year).  At issue is whether it's a political non-starter, and Reich argues that it would be much easier to sell for Democrats than their consultants are telling them.

Welcome to the New Blog

I started this blog, because my other one (meant to be primarily about issues related to academia) was ending up as the de facto place for me to post on my concerns about the escalating war on the middle class.  Why muddy the water, when Blogger lets you set up as many blogs as you want?  So, from now on this is where I'll post my thoughts and links on this critical issue.