There are times when we shake our heads in confusion and frustration as we look at the world around us. Maybe it's a form of the fog of war, the class war that Americans continue to be in ever more painful denial of these days.
Warren Buffet isn't the only one who's noticed that despite all the wringing of hands and broadcast lies, and column inches published trying to deny the truth, the facts still remain the same: America is up to its neck in a ongoing class war.
Lately, we've repeatedly been hitting you over the head with these facts:
Poverty has hit a 50-year high - yet the rich are still getting richer. One in four American children now lives in poverty. Real income hasn't significantly increased since 1967 - unless you're in the top ten percent, and then things look great for you.
We could sit here and list statistics and facts, and link to charts, until almost every word of our commentary was supported with reams of data as solid as granite. That still wouldn't solve the problems our country faces.
We have millions of people out of work, and millions more being underpaid - or overworked. Most of these people aren't lazy; there simply aren't jobs available that they're qualified for. They can't easily move to different locations, either.
We have a Congress that's been held hostage by the ideology of a small group of people on the far right. Their version of compromise is: they get everything they want, and everyone else can go to hell. Since that's not realistic, our government limps along with short-term fixes that are more political theatre than actual results.
We have a President who is desperate to try and fix the problems of the country he's trying to lead - and a Congress that a majority of Americans don't trust to do anything right. Of course, it would help if they showed up for work more than one or two weeks a month. [They're on vacation right now. Again.]
The bills pile up, the layoff notices come in - some of them from banks that we Americans taxpayers paid to bail out, but now they refuse to do the same for us. Our kids have it worse than most of us ever did, and yet the solutions are right in front of us.
Yes, we need to tax the rich more. During the mythical golden age of the 50s that fake conservatives wax nostalgically about, the income tax rate on upper income earners was 90%. Other taxes were also higher.
Yes, we need to cut government programs. We've already been cutting in many areas over the last decade, as the economy declined. Where we haven't cut are places like wasteful military spending. Spending billions on a flying submarine when we have no need for one is stupid - and we have hundreds, if not thousands of similar projects sucking federal taxpayer dollars out of each of our pockets.
We need to cut tax breaks for corporations and individuals. If tax breaks alone really generated jobs, we wouldn't be in the mess we are now experiencing. We are in this situation though, proving that tax cuts don't automatically generate jobs.
Most of all, we need to get back to reality.
When a person creates a job - a solid job that pays a fair day's wage for a fair day's work - and that job lasts a fair amount of time, then and only then does that person qualify as a "job creator." But there shouldn't be a special benefit to being a job creator that separates one class of Americans from another.
After all, under the definition of some - that any job is a job - even our editor's dog creates a job multiple times a day. That doesn't mean the mutt should get special treatment just for taking care of its business.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Scaring Up The Truth
To those of us who keep a watchful eye on politics and power in the U.S., the reality of what's happening on the American political right has recently become painfully obvious - both in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, and in day to day politics.
While most Republicans remain in firm denial about it, the flailing and infighting on the right has long ago ceased to be the kind of mild conflict that could be kept under the "Reagan rule" (also known as the Eleventh Commandment) where Grand Old Party members never speak ill of one another. We're not even talking about the constant sniping that's been happening at the recent GOP debates, or the bizarre and somewhat contradictory results from the latest straw polls this past weekend. Both of those events were messy but merely continued to expose a political party at war with itself and with everyone else - which any honest, sane observer could have told you was happening already.
What's been truly disturbing is seeing the way Republicans and others on the right have been running around lately like crazy people, screaming about Warren Buffett. They demonstrate a lack of understanding of the real argument about the role of wealth in America - and the responsibility that comes with that wealth.
If anyone knows anything about Warren Buffett, they know that he's one of the richest men in the world - and that he has a great deal of experience with contracts of all types, lengths and sizes. Yet when Buffett wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in mid-August titled, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" his point wasn't just the idea that he pays less in taxes than most of the people in his office.
He was breaking down, in detail, the responsibilities he and those like him carry due to the social contract of success in America.
What Mr. Buffett was pointing out is the same thing that Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren recently pointed out, and the same key fact that President Obama alluded to on Monday when he was answering the question of Doug Edwards - one of Google's original employees, now a multi-millionaire.
Obama said to Mr. Edwards - who asked the President to raise his taxes so that public services and the government could be run properly - “I appreciate the fact that you recognize we’re in this thing together,” Obama said. “We’re not on our own. And those of us who’ve been successful, we’ve always gotta remember that.”
Ms. Warren made a similar observation back in August when she said, "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.
Warren continued, "You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
The reason that any of us succeed in America isn't because of divine right - the feudal idea that so many extremist Republicans seem to want to bring back as governing theory. They seem to believe that those who do well in life, who have wealth and influence were actually ordained by a higher power to be in such a position. They think they're rich because THEY are supposed to be rich - and if you're not rich like them, then you can eat cake.
What seems to terrify the fake conservatives of the extremist right is that there might not be some higher power that's chosen them to be blessed more than the rest of us. They're apoplectic that they may be forced to accept the fact that they are just as vulnerable to reality and calamity as the rest of us - and the ONLY defense they have against fate is to partner with all those who have contributed to their success.
As the old saying goes, the most successful among us stand on the shoulders of giants. Or as both President Obama and Mr. Buffett have put it, it's long past time we shared the sacrifices needed to get America going again.
Only those afraid of the truth will run from that fact.
While most Republicans remain in firm denial about it, the flailing and infighting on the right has long ago ceased to be the kind of mild conflict that could be kept under the "Reagan rule" (also known as the Eleventh Commandment) where Grand Old Party members never speak ill of one another. We're not even talking about the constant sniping that's been happening at the recent GOP debates, or the bizarre and somewhat contradictory results from the latest straw polls this past weekend. Both of those events were messy but merely continued to expose a political party at war with itself and with everyone else - which any honest, sane observer could have told you was happening already.
What's been truly disturbing is seeing the way Republicans and others on the right have been running around lately like crazy people, screaming about Warren Buffett. They demonstrate a lack of understanding of the real argument about the role of wealth in America - and the responsibility that comes with that wealth.
If anyone knows anything about Warren Buffett, they know that he's one of the richest men in the world - and that he has a great deal of experience with contracts of all types, lengths and sizes. Yet when Buffett wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in mid-August titled, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" his point wasn't just the idea that he pays less in taxes than most of the people in his office.
He was breaking down, in detail, the responsibilities he and those like him carry due to the social contract of success in America.
What Mr. Buffett was pointing out is the same thing that Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren recently pointed out, and the same key fact that President Obama alluded to on Monday when he was answering the question of Doug Edwards - one of Google's original employees, now a multi-millionaire.
Obama said to Mr. Edwards - who asked the President to raise his taxes so that public services and the government could be run properly - “I appreciate the fact that you recognize we’re in this thing together,” Obama said. “We’re not on our own. And those of us who’ve been successful, we’ve always gotta remember that.”
Ms. Warren made a similar observation back in August when she said, "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.
Warren continued, "You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”
The reason that any of us succeed in America isn't because of divine right - the feudal idea that so many extremist Republicans seem to want to bring back as governing theory. They seem to believe that those who do well in life, who have wealth and influence were actually ordained by a higher power to be in such a position. They think they're rich because THEY are supposed to be rich - and if you're not rich like them, then you can eat cake.
What seems to terrify the fake conservatives of the extremist right is that there might not be some higher power that's chosen them to be blessed more than the rest of us. They're apoplectic that they may be forced to accept the fact that they are just as vulnerable to reality and calamity as the rest of us - and the ONLY defense they have against fate is to partner with all those who have contributed to their success.
As the old saying goes, the most successful among us stand on the shoulders of giants. Or as both President Obama and Mr. Buffett have put it, it's long past time we shared the sacrifices needed to get America going again.
Only those afraid of the truth will run from that fact.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Fighting The Inevitable? Do the Math.
Several times over the last few years we've kept you up to date with the skirmish over installing the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska - and over the world's largest underground freshwater body of water, the Ogallala Aquifer. Polls have proven what we already knew - a majority of Nebraskans do NOT want the pipeline where the oil company wants it to be. TransCanada, the company trying to drive the pipeline through Nebraskans seems confident that they'll succeed in jamming the pipeline through. There are even indications some State Department personnel may have acted as internal lobbyists - and may have possibly been bought off.
In theory, the State Department is supposed to be listening to what Nebraskans want or don't want from the pipeline, at two hearings scheduled this week in Lincoln and Atkinson.
Many don't believe the State Department is listening at all. Contrary to the rosy picture some media outlets are attempting to propagandize with, the pipeline won't create very many jobs for Nebraska workers. Labor unions have been duped into thinking Nebraskans will get long-term stable, good paying jobs from this project. Most welders and installers will be brought in by the TransCanda corporation from outside the state, just as they've done elsewhere. Even IF the pipeline is allowed to be built, once the initial construction is completed - in little more than two years - those jobs will all go away.
Any claims that the Keystone XL pipeline will generate energy for the U.S. for years to come are also a load of bull. When oil is sold on the world market, it isn't labeled 'American' or 'Saudi'. Companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron sell any oil pumped in America at the going global rate - a rate determined mostly overseas by OPEC - and America doesn't get a discount because it's buying oil that was pumped here.
Further, as we already noted earlier this year, if there is an oil spill that gets into the Ogallala Aquifer we could be making the Great Plains an uninhabitable wasteland. Farmers, ranchers, and everyone else living in an area from North Dakota to Texas, and from the Rockies to the Missouri River could be forced to find a different source for drinking water and agricultural irrigation if tar sands oil leaks into the aquifer.
If you go to the meetings this week, we don't recommend trusting TransCanada's assurances about how safe they can be. TransCanada's rival, Enbridge, still hasn't cleaned up their "small" oil spill in Michigan from last year - the same kind of incredibly toxic tar sands oil TransCanada wants to pump across the Ogallala Aquifer. Formerly pristine Michigan wetlands that were perfect for hunting and fishing are still damaged, and don't look to be cleaned up in the forseeable future.
The disaster on the Yellowstone River in Montana that TransCanada promised would be safe is even more serious. That oil pipeline has now been turned back on after being reburied deep enough so that when it leaks, no one downstream is likely to know for years. Folks in every state along the Missouri and lower Mississippi would be wise to test their water quality far more often than they do now.
All of this unnecessary risk over an energy source that won't do anything to curb America's addiction to oil, makes little sense.
Meanwhile, the Chinese expect to grow their solar power use by over ONE THOUSAND PERCENT in the next four years. Chinese government officials are literally laughing at America's failure to jump on board the green energy technology explosion. Back at home, right-wing extremists continue desperately trying to claim Solyndra was a failure of the Obama Administration, even though much of its support and loan money was authorized under the Bush regime.
Regardless of what the paranoid idiots claim, the mathematical facts regarding the U.S. energy situation haven't changed.
Solyndra was only ONE of forty alternative energy companies our government supported - and the others have all succeeded to various degrees. The green economy will easily overcome Solyndra's bankruptcy. Meanwhile, an oil company responsible for both major and minor oil disasters in the last few years is supposed to be given a hands-off approach to endangering the primary water supply for millions of Americans living in the center third of the country? That doesn't compute.
When you add up the risks of endangering the food and water security of America for generations while possibly depopulating the entire central United States, against a few hundred short-term jobs that might not even go to Americans who live in the area where the work is planned, we just can't see the benefits.
Do the math, folks. Kill the pipeline, before it kills us.
In theory, the State Department is supposed to be listening to what Nebraskans want or don't want from the pipeline, at two hearings scheduled this week in Lincoln and Atkinson.
Many don't believe the State Department is listening at all. Contrary to the rosy picture some media outlets are attempting to propagandize with, the pipeline won't create very many jobs for Nebraska workers. Labor unions have been duped into thinking Nebraskans will get long-term stable, good paying jobs from this project. Most welders and installers will be brought in by the TransCanda corporation from outside the state, just as they've done elsewhere. Even IF the pipeline is allowed to be built, once the initial construction is completed - in little more than two years - those jobs will all go away.
Any claims that the Keystone XL pipeline will generate energy for the U.S. for years to come are also a load of bull. When oil is sold on the world market, it isn't labeled 'American' or 'Saudi'. Companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron sell any oil pumped in America at the going global rate - a rate determined mostly overseas by OPEC - and America doesn't get a discount because it's buying oil that was pumped here.
Further, as we already noted earlier this year, if there is an oil spill that gets into the Ogallala Aquifer we could be making the Great Plains an uninhabitable wasteland. Farmers, ranchers, and everyone else living in an area from North Dakota to Texas, and from the Rockies to the Missouri River could be forced to find a different source for drinking water and agricultural irrigation if tar sands oil leaks into the aquifer.
If you go to the meetings this week, we don't recommend trusting TransCanada's assurances about how safe they can be. TransCanada's rival, Enbridge, still hasn't cleaned up their "small" oil spill in Michigan from last year - the same kind of incredibly toxic tar sands oil TransCanada wants to pump across the Ogallala Aquifer. Formerly pristine Michigan wetlands that were perfect for hunting and fishing are still damaged, and don't look to be cleaned up in the forseeable future.
The disaster on the Yellowstone River in Montana that TransCanada promised would be safe is even more serious. That oil pipeline has now been turned back on after being reburied deep enough so that when it leaks, no one downstream is likely to know for years. Folks in every state along the Missouri and lower Mississippi would be wise to test their water quality far more often than they do now.
All of this unnecessary risk over an energy source that won't do anything to curb America's addiction to oil, makes little sense.
Meanwhile, the Chinese expect to grow their solar power use by over ONE THOUSAND PERCENT in the next four years. Chinese government officials are literally laughing at America's failure to jump on board the green energy technology explosion. Back at home, right-wing extremists continue desperately trying to claim Solyndra was a failure of the Obama Administration, even though much of its support and loan money was authorized under the Bush regime.
Regardless of what the paranoid idiots claim, the mathematical facts regarding the U.S. energy situation haven't changed.
Solyndra was only ONE of forty alternative energy companies our government supported - and the others have all succeeded to various degrees. The green economy will easily overcome Solyndra's bankruptcy. Meanwhile, an oil company responsible for both major and minor oil disasters in the last few years is supposed to be given a hands-off approach to endangering the primary water supply for millions of Americans living in the center third of the country? That doesn't compute.
When you add up the risks of endangering the food and water security of America for generations while possibly depopulating the entire central United States, against a few hundred short-term jobs that might not even go to Americans who live in the area where the work is planned, we just can't see the benefits.
Do the math, folks. Kill the pipeline, before it kills us.
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