Sadly, No Surprises

Throughout history, only the most craven and ethically bankrupt individuals have been known to regularly rob the bodies of the dead for any remaining valuables, even while the body is still warm. In our modern culture, most Americans would consider that kind of theft disgusting, and a sad relic of the past.

With the smack of a gavel, and an hour-long ruling, a Judge in Detroit ruled on Tuesday that the days of modern-day body snatchers are, in fact, alive and well - so long as the one doing the stealing is a massive Wall Street bank.

The macabre act we're talking about is the ruling, by a Federal judge, that the now-battered city of Detroit is, in fact, eligible to enter bankruptcy proceedings. The judge also ruled that the Constitution of the state of Michigan, which expressly protects the pension funds of retired public sector workers, was effectively nullified by the desire of banks to steal the hard-earned retirement funds of Detroit's former police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other former public-sector workers.

For any American who's ever put their retirement money in a private pension fund, this action should send chills down their spine, in the same way that robbing the dead body of a still-warm human would.

Of course, if you understand this is just the latest chapter in a long history of Wall Street pillaging Detroit, you're likely as unsurprised as we are.

As a study by the think tank Demos proved just last month, for all the hate and scorn the political right would like to heap on Detroit and it's unions, the reason that town has become such a bombed out shell of its former glory is simple: the greed of Wall Street banks.

As the study - and many others like it - confirmed, Detroit's disastrous current economic state stems from its history as a one-industry town. As David Sirota noted in Salon recently, the recession and free-trade-related deindustrialization decimated the city’s manufacturing job base and drove the population out of the city. When the jobs and citizens left, the tax base of Detroit went with it, leaving the decaying shell of a once-great industrial city.

The financial wizards of Wall Street didn't think the Motor City was going to be worthless until it was completely dead. Schemes crafted by some of Wall Street's most ethically bankrupt organizations were created to effectively steal anything else of value from the city - including one of the most incredible collections of publicly owned art in the world, at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Up until Tuesday, hard-working retirees from Detroit didn't think that the money they'd saved in their pension funds - money they get in lieu of Social Security - had anything much in common with the amazing works of Diego Rivera, or or the works of Picasso and Rubens.

Now, thanks to the ruling of one ethically-challenged Federal judge, it's not just Rodin's Thinker that needs to re-think his safety. Retirees across the nation may now have good reason to worry about their pension savings being robbed by some of Wall Street's lowest, yet most profitable. Already in Illinois, the state legislature has agreed to a "fix" for their pension crisis that effectively steals millions in benefits that retired workers already paid for, and gives that money to banks and other creditors.

What's going on in Illinois shouldn't really surprise anyone, sadly.

If Wall Street is willing to basically pick over the corpse of a city like Detroit, why wouldn't they go after the still-living in Illinois, or anywhere else in America?

Trickle Down Is All Washed Up

Today, due to several outside activities, our staff is a bit short-handed. Thankfully, Shannyn Moore - a nationally known radio and TV commentator, a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and The Huffington Post, and a personal friend of the staff - has graciously allowed us to reprint her most recent column about Pope Francis and his apostolic exhortation. That document is effectively the Pope's platform for his papacy, and makes some very bold and clear statements.

As both Ms. Moore and John Nichols of 'The Nation' both noted, the Pope - and for Catholics, through the Pope, God - has taken a side in the fight against economic inequality. That side isn't with the Wall Street or trickle-down Republicans, which seems to be confusing and frustrating many on the political right in America.

Thankfully, Shannyn makes clear for our readers today exactly who the Pope is siding with - and why the era of trickle-down economics is washed up for the millions of faithful Catholics worldwide.
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Though not Catholic, I went to a Jesuit University and had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life in Rome. I watched the smoke from the Sistine Chapel signal the selection of a new pope.

I like the new guy, Pope Francis. He's not perfect, and neither is the institution, but this guy's a rebel. I think Jesus -- you know, the guy who chased the investment bankers out of the temple -- would like him too.

This pope doesn't prance around in red Prada shoes like the previous quitter pope. He has instructed clergy to sell their newer cars, give the money to the poor and drive beaters like his 1984 Renault. He told them to think of starving children instead of fancier cars.

He has washed the feet of prisoners in a remarkable display of humility. "Who am I to judge?" was his response to a question about homosexuals. He wants to focus on issues of poverty and economic justice rather than the church's recent "obsession" with gays, abortion and birth control.

He told the head of Vatican charities to get rid of his desk -- he wouldn't need it because he would be out among the people finding their needs. Germany's "Bishop of Bling" was fired and his mansion, with its $40 million in renovations, was turned into a soup kitchen.

This week the Vatican published a document that is basically the pope's platform. He's the spiritual leader of a worldwide population of Catholics three times larger than the U.S., so chances are he's got quite an audience.

In his "manifesto," Pope Francis took on greed and consumption. He flogged unfettered capitalism as the new "tyranny." The lure of consumerism is there to serve the financial system that rules us, he said. (See 2008.)

He wrote, "The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose." (Apparently he's familiar with Wal-Mart.)

"The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person!"

Oh, the humanity!

"Trickle down" economics is nothing more than a gimmick to fool the naive. It works for the tricklers, not the tricklees. (See the last 30 years.)

This pope isn't falling for it. He said politicians should guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and health care." Holy moly! The man wants "entitlements" -- or what some of us call "human rights."

Dignified work? A living wage? He's a crazy radical!

My mother said he sounds like Mother Teresa. I think he sounds like Jesus.

Sarah Palin is all "taken aback." The things this pope talks about seem "liberal" to her. Wait 'til someone tells her what Jesus was really about. Healing the sick (without talking nonsense about death panels), feeding the hungry (without teaching them to fish first), telling people to sell their possessions and give the money to the poor (redistribution of wealth, for God's sake!), and praising the peacemakers (you know, those of us who don't think bombing is the first stage of diplomacy).

If she ever reads the book, (you know, the one in all the hotel rooms), she's going to freak out.

Rush Limbaugh did. In all his befuddled (or is it drug-addled) wisdom, he said, "Somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him. This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope."

Apparently someone got to him a long time ago. Back in Argentina, he was known for distributing bread at night to the poor, and sitting and talking to homeless people.

Maybe it was a gang that got to Pope Frances. Yeah, that's it. The Gospel Gang of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Maybe there was a typo and Limbaugh meant Mark-ist instead of Marxist.

While Sarah is busy cashing in on the "War on Christmas," Pope Francis gets what's really happening. The war on Christmas is being waged by thoughtless consumption and corporate greed.

The last thing the Pope needs is my blessing but my prayers are with him.

The Truth About Gratitude

As December begins, and most of America attempts to crawl back to work and out of our collective national tryptophan-induced comas, we think it's important for you to catch up on a few things that happened over the last few days.

Yes, the annual Black Friday stampedes and sales occurred - with many of them starting on Thursday - though that extra day didn't appear to help retailers as much as they thought it would. The Republican National Committee declared racism dead over the holiday break, in a completely boneheaded move on Twitter. Meanwhile, the GOP's position on the hungry appeared to remain, "Let them eat cake."

Hanukkah began, and the Pope also delivered his first apostolic exhortation - effectively his platform for his papacy - a positive and amazing statement on world economics that truly decouples the idea that Wall Street is on the side of God. A train also derailed in New York City during the holiday break, Auburn derailed Alabama's national championship hopes, Nebraska's head football coach Bo Pelini kept his job, and - contrary to all the hate, lies, and detrimental counter-measures Republicans and conservatives have engaged in for years - Obamacare did not derail over the break. In fact, the national Affordable Care website has significantly improved - just as the Obama Administration promised it would.

In short, some Americans obviously came out of the long Thanksgiving weekend filled with continued gratitude and gratefulness, while others are still the ungrateful, angry, fact-free little monsters they've always been.

Welcome to the holiday season, 2013 edition.

We're more than certain you're going to hear about many of these stories today, and you may have even caught a few slanted, sloppy versions of them over the weekend. Whatever claims you heard from that one uncle or auntie we all have, the facts on most of these stories are no different than they were five days ago.

For example, Republicans in Congress and those on the right are still screaming about all the problems with Affordable Care Act. Yet they still don't want to take any responsibility for all the problems they've caused in the rollout of the program - and they still have no concrete alternative plan. Meanwhile, the Obama administration did indeed meet its own goals on improving the system by November 30. Sure, there are many more things to do to improve our national health insurance system - it's just doubtful you’ll find anyone on the political right trying to do anything to improve that system.

Likewise in Nebraska's football program, there are still those grousing that head coach Bo Pelini should be fired, even in the wake of an obvious statement of support from Nebraska's new Athletic Director, Shawn Eichorst. These anti-Pelini armchair football 'geniuses' have no legitimate idea of who the program would replace Pelini with, and no understanding of the massive economic damage such a hasty action would cause to the school they claim to love. They also seem to have forgotten the petition once passed around Nebraska to fire legendary football coach Bob Devaney, or the years when similar discussions swirled around legendary football coach Tom Osborne.

In other words, whatever expressions of gratitude some Americans whispered over the weekend, their monsterous actions in the three days since prove that - in their hearts - their facade of gratefulness disappeared as rapidly as this year's latkes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.

We hope that as this month of holiday festivities begin, you remember that being grateful - not just for what you have, but also that things aren't worse - isn't merely a once-a-year action.

Being grateful is a way of life.