Well…I promise this one will be shorter but it is something I need to get down before I forget it. I was musing about the class warfare aspect of the fights that are going on in statehouses across the country and one thing struck me: that this is a new kind of class war…one that is being fomented by the rich and powerful and uses working folks as the soldiers, pitting powerless people who have seen their pay, benefits, and security decline by the fake necessity of givebacks against those who have found at least a little protection of their status by their membership in unions. And, the puppet masters who are pulling the strings have been masterful in getting people to vote against their own interests, and to believe the lies that all of the economic problems in this country are caused by greedy workers. You have to hand it to them…first they gut funding for education so they get an ignorant populace, then they overwork them so they have no energy left to even think about how badly they’ve been deceived…..and the downward spiral for labor continues while the rich sit in their clubs and laugh their asses off at you and I….
All posts by James DeVol
The results are in…
Well…this one may be long and convoluted but I really wanted to get to the Michigan budget crisis now that there are real numbers to be put with the plans that were presented by Gov. Snyder…..I’m not going to bore you with listing specifics because those numbers are readily available elsewhere and I just don’t want to swamp you with minutiae. So, let’s get to it….business gets their 1.8 billion tax break….and let’s be clear right away…no study has shown that tax breaks, in the absence of a rise in demand, result in an increase in jobs. With the retained profits of companies already a their highest point in history, why would you think that giving them more profits would result in hiring of more workers? It just doesn’t work that way and yet the faith-based economics of the repubs continue to throw money at business that just ends up padding the wallets of those at the top. The right way to do it would be to ensure there is an increase in demand by tax incentives or higher wages for workers…folks, this is econ 101 stuff that everyone seems to know but the repubs and it exposes this governor’s plan as driven by ideology more than economics. Did you expect anything else from a governor whose only claim to fame was to take his golden parachute worth hundreds of millions while shipping all of the jobs at Gateway to China?
Now, let’s get to who is going to pay for these business tax cuts….the analysis out today, and it is in the right leaning Detroit News, is that the majority of the “shared sacrifice” comes from retirees and the working poor…those who are the least able to afford this huge tax increase…and, make no mistake, this is being done because the repubs always make people pay that have no power or influence…the tax effect for the wealthy here in Michigan would be an increase that is, on average, 77 dollars a year while that of the retirees an working poor would be in the thousands….this is morally reprehensible but true to form for these thieves. Next, let’s get to the the idea of the Michigan film tax credit, that Snyder has proposed be limited to 25 million dollars a year. Under the current plan, for every dollar of tax credit, Michigan sees 6 dollars of economic activity and has resulted in the only area of job growth in the state; diversifying our economy and starting many new businesses that actually employ people…not just giving more money to the rich. But, as we all know, the film industry is a little more liberal leaning than the general population and it is payback time here in Michigan….Snyder will do anything, just like the rest of the repubs, to crush the opposition even if it means putting people out of work and destroying one of the only bright spots in Michigan’s economy.
Okay, I’m running out of steam here but you can see from just these few instances that “shared sacrifice” means shared by the poor and working people, imposed by the rich, benefiting the rich, and everyone else can go to hell….geez…
February 26th
Well…running late again this morning but you’ve seen this pattern before so you shouldn’t be surprised…this happens almost every weekend…and that is kind of strange since there is no difference between weekdays and weekends for me….was kind of a bore of a day yesterday…I did try the new pork recipe for the slow cooker and that came out quite good…kind of like slow cooked barbecue that was very tender and flavorful….have to remember to really boost the spices when I’m using the cooker, otherwise the food turns out somewhat bland. Just hung out last night and did nothing but watch tv…it was kind of nice to just veg out…and no, it’s not what I do all the time…just most of the time…I am going to try to be much more productive today, after I finish reading the papers and having my coffee that is, I am going to clean my kitchen….or try to clean it..who knows. I do have at least one more topic for the day but probably 2…with the details of the new tax structure here in Michigan finally coming out it appears my prediction is true, that the state’s budget will be balanced on the backs of the poor and retired, while business and the upper classes walk away without paying a dime more….more later…
Okay, I know, I’m not supposed to talk politics here…so I won’t, I did forget that there is going to be a SF today with K and V…kind of hope we just meet up out here instead of going across town…although the wreck could use getting up to temp…this winter has been hard on it…then there are races and a Wings game later so at least I won’t be bored….
Just not myself lately…
Well….it’s been a weird few days and I have been feeling this strange disconnect with the world, like I’m in it but not part of it….I don’t know if that has affected my posts or not since the way I look at things and my objectivity has been strained, too. But, now that I think about it, objectivity is something that I struggle with at times with outrage overwhelming it on a regular basis. And no, this one is not to just get my count up for the month…after all, I don’t make any money on this stuff..it might be nice to get piece work like I used to at the factory job that I started out with. Now, the damn car has another exhaust problem that is going to cost another 250 to 300 bucks that I just don’t have….so I sit here isolated again, waiting for the slow cooker to finish and for 7 o’clock to come for cocktail time…at least there is a race on to see tonight…but it’s from Phoenix which is not one of my favorite tracks.
Have not heard form K yet so I guess there is no FF to look forward to…maybe tomorrow for SF…who knows? Not much else to do for the weekend, I guess I’ll just wing it and see what happens…I did watch that oscar nominated documentary called “Exit through the gift shop” that has gotten a lot of attention but it was hard to get through the whole thing…and I didn’t see a point to it at all. No where near as good as “the Cove” that was up for the oscar last year. Okay…I’m running out of things to say right now but I may come back later….there have been things emerging all day but the effect is fleeting….more later…
More repub craziness…and thievery…
Well… this is going to be a short one, just had a couple of thoughts about things that popped up in this morning’s news that does a couple of things; one points out the craziness and lack of moral character that the repubs have, and the second sheds light on the real agenda of the new theftocracy that is called the republicans. First, yesterday in Georgia, at a town hall meeting held by Paul Broun a repub rep, a questioner asked this idiot “who is going to shoot Obama?” and the reaction of rep Broun was to change the subject…not address it as being so out of line and using it as a teachable moment, but just moving on; giving the questioner the tacit approval of his silence. These are the people you’ve elected folks…doesn’t anyone else see anything wrong with his response? Especially in light of the shootings in Arizona, this idiot should have been taught right then and there that violence has no place in our political process…but the repubs have benefited by their violent rhetoric so why would they want it to stop?
The next one is about a neat little trick buried in the bill that will strip workers of their rights in Wisconsin…this bit of thievery gives the governor the absolute ability to sell any and all public buildings, powerplants, or any other public property to whomever he pleases without any oversight, bids or recourse for the citizens of the state. Yep, that’s right…this guy that got elected by the Koch brothers and the tea party who railed and railed about dems doing things by unelected regulatory bodies, have just taken away the rights of the people of Wisconsin to have any say in the disposition of government property that they paid for…the czar of Wisconsin now gets to do whatever he pleases with the people’s property….all I have to say is watch…the real agenda of these folks is becoming clear…the lip service they paid to representative government and upholding the constitution was just that, nothing but lies to get elected and to give them the chance to steal everything else they haven’t already given to business and the rich.
February 25th
Well…just a normal sort of day yesterday, I did get to see T for a few minutes and that was nice but the rest of the day was just the boring regularity that is starting to drive me a little crazy. I need something different to happen but I don’t know what that is yet…if you have any suggestions, please let me know…my brain seem to be kind of clogged up but that’s not all of it…just can’t bring myself to spend any cash so that keeps me here…today will be better, though…I am doing the grocery run this morning and will be firing up the slow cooker for some country style ribs but don’t know what I’m making with it…..I guess I’ll just look to see what is on sale in the produce dept……I have been trying to eat more veggies and I am finding that I really like quite a few fresh ones….not much else to do today…K might be back from Florida so there may be a FF this aft…that would be a good way to start off the weekend but, as you know, weekends don’t mean a lot to those of us who aren’t working….I will have some topics for later since I do need to get going to make it to 60 for the month….of course, that’s not the only reason…I may even have something pertinent to say, you’ll never know unless you come back….
Democracy died in Michigan yesterday…
Well….I am so outraged by the actions of the repub controlled house here in Michigan yesterday that I can barely think straight….democracy of, by and for the people died here with the passage of the emergency financial bill that would let appointed boards fire elected officials across the state. Yep, you heard it….this new set of six bills would allow non-elected boards, appointed by the governor to fire mayors, school boards, city managers and a whole host of other elected officials if the governor decides they are not toeing his cost cutting line. These thugs have nothing on the commissars of the old Soviet Union who regularly removed politicians that got out of the lock step of communism….these are the people that were elected on the guise of getting government out of the way? Well..with this legislation they can get people out of the way that don’t agree with them and yours and my votes no longer count here….where the hell is the outrage people? Where are you tea party…you who rode to election on the pages of the constitution just to tear it up once elected…if the previous governor had proposed anything of this sort and a democratic controlled legislature passed these bills, you repubs would have been out in the street with your pitchforks and torches screaming at the top of your lungs that socialism had taken over. It has here in Michigan….but more than that, it is totalitarianism; no different than any of the states in the middle east that are now in flames….and our Mubarak or Gadhafi is named Rick Snyder….
February 24th
Well…a weird day yesterday and some things happened that I really can’t share here….maybe in the future….I did take it easy for most of the day…didn’t meet up with T since she was just too busy….but that might happen today so there is something to look forward to….I am running out of food and should get some but don’t have any cash so I think I may just clean this place out first…should make for some really interesting meals but how do you put rice and noodles together? I could make chicken soup….not much to do today, as always, I just need to get creative to keep the boredom at bay….yow, this one is really choppy….so I’m going to quit here and try to shake the cobwebs out and make the brain work better….more later….
Manny is still a shill….
Well…just a short one to talk about something I read in the Detroit News by our favorite shill for the repubs, Manny Lopez. In this one, one of the things he bitches about is the media coverage of the protests across the midwest, and his rationale is that since there are only about 12% of the working population in unions, the media should not cover the protests of these “sign carrying, bullhorn toting” crowds. Oh, really Manny? You thought that coverage of events like these was just peachy when it was the tea partiers carrying the signs and toting the bullhorns, and at the time you thought it was wonderful uprising of ordinary folks “taking back their government”. What’s the difference here Manny? These are ordinary working folks trying to keep the government from taking away their right to collectively bargain and if this was happening at a tea party rally, you would be right there with them. This is just another instance where the right shows its intellectual and moral bankruptcy…funded by the Koch brothers….geez….
Why are people voting to give up their workplace voices?
Well….the attack on labor in this country continues with yesterday’s vote in the house to defund the NLRB, pushed by the repubs, of course. If you don’t know what the NLRB does shame on you, but I’ll give you a capsule here….it is the government organization that conducts union elections, but more than that, it rules whether business tactics like lockouts and intimidation of workers trying to organize are legal or not…one of the basic protections that labor has here in the US. One thing I just can’t understand is why do people keep voting for the repubs when they want to go back to the bad old days where workers were told to shut up and just cope with unfair labor practices and dangerous workplaces. I think I have to agree with some of my friends on this issue; that Americans are just getting more and more stupid as time goes on. When did people stop voting in their own economic self interest? I’m going to come back to this one in a bit…just wanted to get the idea down before I read the rest of the online papers….
this one is going to be a little disjointed because ideas are coming to me that way today….one that I did want to comment on was the Gallup poll from yesterday that showed that almost two-thirds of Americans want to retain the ability of labor to organize in both the public and private sector…this cuts across the entire political spectrum and raises another question for me: if the people that voted for the repubs don’t want this union bashing to continue, who are they doing it for? Really shows you that business is calling the shots with the repubs and the people that voted for them are just pawns in the con game they are running on the US….