Well…I have bee struggling with the question in the title since yesterday when I saw a segment on Keith’s show that described how repubs in Virgina are attacking a woman’s right to choose by legislating that before she can choose, she must underego an invasive procedure (which I won’t describe here but you can imagine) forced on her by the government. Where are the small government repubs now? When more of than 50% of the electorate are women, you would think that the repubs would put aside their war on women just for their own political survival, never mind that this is just a huge abrogation of womens civil rights and takes us back to the bad old days when men essentially owned women. How would these guys feel if the government told them they had to have an invasive prostate exam to get the rest of their healthcare? You can bet that law would be gone in a minute.
Then…we have the idiot Mitt here in West Michigan yesterday telling a hand picked crowd that he will fight against unions and destroy them if he is elected…I don’t even know what to say about that other than bye, bye, Mitt…it’s the last mistake you’re going to make…especially when over 70% of the people in the US want unions to remain as protection against unbridled business. Geez…
Well…with the latest numbers that have come out on family income over the past couple of weeks showing that poverty and income inequality is skyrocketing in the US, and the connection between this inequality and the lackluster recovery, I think it is time to do something radical. But first let’s place the responsibility for these changes squarely where they belong, on the repub policies over the past thirty years that have resulted in the top 1% doing well and everyone else going backward. I know, I’ve railed about this before just because what I was seeing an feeling felt wrong, but with numbers like these it is time to stop nibbling at the corners and take a huge bite out of the core problems. First, I would propose an immediate change in ceo pay to 1 dollar per year and structural changes that would prevent any ceo from being compensated more than 50 times the average of the people that work for him or her…this would give them the incentive to raise all boats as the saying goes since rising pay of his workers would also raise the ceo’s pay. Second, I would propose worker representation on every corporate board to break the cycle of cronyism and incestous relationships that pervade corporate America and give all stakeholders a voice in their livelihoods….third, I would immediately raise the pay of all of the workers to the difference of the 1 dollar ceo pay proposed and what the average of the pay has been over the past 5 years….putting billions if not trillions of dollars in the hands of people that will spend it and giving a huge boost to our manufacturing and service industries; creating a truly self-sustaining recovery that will be spread across the economic spectrum….
Okay, I know this is really quite radical and will be branded as socialist, communist, and maybe even Martian…but, what we are currently doing is not working due in large part to the desire of the repubs to ensure that Obama doesn’t get a second term….so we need to do something new…
Well…as every day goes by, I have more and more hope that the right will continue is descent into the delusions they have been experiencing since the start of the primary season. The latest in this long list is the idea that, if re-elected, Obama will “wage war” on the Catholic church and somehow cause an institution that has survived for almost 2,000 years to disappear…whether is should or not is not a topic for today but when it and it’s supporters on the right coordinate attacks on Obama for a reasonable rule on contraception saying that as a matter of faith, the Catholic institutions should not have to abide by rules that are already the law of the land in over 30 states, it is the right that is denigrating religion by cynically using it as a ploy for political advantage. So, the right, who wraps itself in the Constitution on a daily basis thinks every law should be subject to a matter of faith; only following those that match their religious beliefs? I defy them to find that kind of nonsense in the Constitution…since the founding of this country, people have been free to practice whatever religion they see fit but never has religion trumped the law of the land…and this comes from the party of laws against Sharia and it’s use in the legal system…but, we all know they would love to have the US become a theocracy…just like the Muslim countries they love to hate…geez…
As a moderate progressive who wants this country to succeed for everyone, I just hope they keep this nonsense up all the way to their convention…by then, they will have shown their true colors to the independents and other moderates that will swing the election and we will send all of these crazies home for another 4 years and maybe get back to making an America for all Americans, not just the wealthy and connected…
Well…just a short one about some more nonsense from the governor of the Koch brothers in Wisconsin….with the first settlement of wrongdoing in the mortgage mess, which is supposed to be used to help homeowners that were affected by the practices of the large banks, we see in Wisconsin that Scott Walker has other ideas and is using the money to pay for tax cuts for business that were passed last year. Yep, you heard that right…money that is supposed to go to the people of Wisconsin is going straight back to the businesses that bought the election for Walker…is there any other reason needed to remove this idiot from office? I hope the people of Wisconsin send him back to the Koch brothers in the recall election later this year…
Well…if you have been following politics at all over the past couple of weeks, you can see that a change is brewing in the tactics of the repub party….the tired old nonsense of the culture war has risen it’s ugly head again but this time, I think they may have miscalculated and it is not going to work except for with their base. We’ve seen that the republicans look worried with their current crop of candidates and their lack of competitiveness in a head to head matchup with Obama…so what do we see again? The GOP rolling out the gay marriage card…the repubs trotting out the faked battle on contraception, and the continued attacks on Planned Parenthood that are designed to appeal to the ignorant haters in their base…but, what they are failing to see in 2012 is that base is the only place these attacks resound…all of the polls show us that America has become more tolerant and accepting and we are tired of the nonsense the repubs are peddling…but, I hope they continue it since these shenanigans have driven the approval of the repub controlled congress down to historically low levels at 10%…only 10% of the people in the US approve of the obstructionist crap the repubs are using to keep the economy from improving…and I hope they pay for it by losing control of the house this fall…they deserve it….geez…
Well…it has been really quite comical seeing the repub candidates try to one-up each other on the toughness of their proposed foreign policy…to hear them talk there will be no nuance or discussion with either our friends or enemies and under the repubs foreign policy will be reduced to one mantra “shoot first and ask questions later”. But, the reasons why are so varied and include the rise of other powers in the world both economically and militarily. I did read an article in the Washington Post today by Fareed Zakaria that does a much better job than I can in explaining these changes…here’s the link….http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-post-american-world-demands-a-new-approach-from-the-us/2012/02/01/gIQAba5ziQ_story.html?hpid=z3
Well…this is going to be a short one while I wait for the laundry to finish so I can get out on the bike before lunch….there was an interesting little article about a poll taken over the past week that asked small business owners what their largest impediment to growth and adding jobs was…and, guess what? It wasn’t the old repub screed about too much regulation…in fact a majority of those polled felt that good regulation helps level the playing field for them…something I have been saying since I started this thing almost two years ago…but, the surprise of the poll was that, by a large majority, these small business owners said that lack of demand was the biggest barrier to them growing their companies…and where do we get demand? By increases in the disposable income of consumers that is driven by sharing the stellar growth in productivity that big business has hoarded for the top 1%….and more stimulus from the government….so, the next time you hear a repub cry about too much regulation in the economy…just shout “nonsense” at them and let’s call out these “truths” that are anything but…geez…
Well…it has been a weird synthesis that has happened over the day today with reading a bunch of articles the were seemingly unrelated, but then a light came on and an idea slowly came to me about the controversy where union members don’t have any say when their dues are used for political donations and the repubs howling about it and trying to write laws to eliminate this use of those dues. Then it came to me…what is the difference between unions using their dues to support political candidates they like and corporations cutting peoples pay and then taking the money they save and giving it to their candidates? I’ve never heard a repub bitch about corporate giving or proposing any laws that would restrict it…and I’ve never heard of any corporation asking their employees to vote on what candidates or causes are supported….so, again, the hypocrites on the right have it wrong..but they are so used to having it both ways that they can’t see their hypocrisy…or better yet, they won’t see it because they don’t believe in truth…geez…
Well…it was an interesting little sound bite that came out of the morning news shows with ole Mitt when he came out and said “I’m not concerned about the poor…they have their safety nets”…I can’t believe how wrong this is on so many levels, especially when his party has made it’s their life’s work to end the safety net as we know it with their opposition to unemployment benefits and their efforts to gut medicaid, medicare, and social security. He then went on to say that his concern is for the middle class and making sure it is strong…yeah, right, Mitt…you were really concerned at Bain when you reaped millions of dollars in profits personally by hacking up companies and stealing the assets while leaving the employees holding the bag…something that you are still profiting from to this day and it is just a lie that you give a damn about anyone but your isolated buddies in the 1% that live in their gated enclaves with their legacy admissions to the best colleges and their lives of privilege. If that sounds like “envy’ you are wrong…it is anger at the self-perpetuating nonsense pushed by the repubs that won’t allow people like me to work anymore…that just because of my age there is no place for me when I have the education and the skills the repubs are always saying the workforce lacks…so, Mitt, take your Freudian slip and go back to your 10 houses and leave the rest of us alone….geez…
Well…just looked at the count for the month and realized that I’ve already made my goal of two per day for the month…but, I thought I’d do another one just for the hell of it..don’t know if I have very much to say but I’m going to say it anyway…I did get the papers out for recycling as I said I would but that is about it…I think I’m going to stay on this topic for a while…that the intelligence and memory of the people in the US must be questioned when polls come out that put Romney and Obama almost even in the general election….I can still remember the Bush years…the unfunded wars we were lied into, the erosion of our civil liberties, the shredding of the constitution, the continued concentration of wealth in the top 1% while the rest of the country struggles….let’s say it again…all of the problems we have now are a direct result of repub policies and they are promising more of the same if elected…they are planning to gut social security and medicare while giving tax breaks to the rich that will give them an AVERAGE of $146,000 cut while raising them on everyone else. No society can survive when one percent of the country controls everything….
I have one question to ask…why can’t ceo’s take only half of their outrageous pay and give pay raises to the people that work for them? This one move would put billions if not trillions of dollars into the hands of people who would spend it, increasing demand across the entire economy and putting people back to work….just saying….