Haves
Looks like a good year for the American economy - but a very bad year for Americans.
Economic growth is up to about 5%, the highest since 2003. Still, many economists would tell you that it's a weaker recovery than it should have been.
Be that as it may, it is still growth. So where's my pay raise?
Gas prices are rising, as are mortgage rates. House prices in many once-hot markets have started slipping. The American automobile industry shows no sign of recovery. And the paychecks of most workers have not even kept up with inflation over the last four years.
And that's it. Economic expansion is being paid for by workers. The system, already rigged against them, has been completely re-wired to deliver any economic gains to the rich and their corporations - who are doing just fine, thank you very much.
Where before they were happy to gulp the soup with big spoons, they now just tip the whole bowl down their gullets. They don't pay anything close to their share of taxes, so it's up to the beleaguered middle class and put-upon working class to foot all the bills.
'Trickle down' economics is the massive lie that conservatives tell others - and tell themselves - for using their political and economic power to fix the game in their favour.
Gone are the days when leaders like FDR and "Give Em Hell" Harry Truman existed to help every American participate in the wealth that they themselves create. The money that our economic elites are happy to rake in and burn is the money that is created by working people who are making less now than the did five years ago.
It makes you think, again, of the Golden Years of Bubba, when the gap between rich and poor actually narrowed, taxation was (more) progressive, and the national bounty of economic blessings was a shared joy.
It's all gone horribly wrong, and it's almost too much to write about. Maybe that's why I keep typing most mornings. It's hard to believe that my American Brethren could be this savagely stupid - enough to put up with the Junta. Stupid enough to 'go along.'
Arlen Spectre is that stupid. He recognizes that the NSA wiretapping is illegal. He won't have Gonzo back because he knows - get this - that the Attorney General of the United States won't tell him anything.
"Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment," Specter said. "If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it."
Okay, the first step is to want to maintain your institutional prerogative, but how are you going to do that? He's threatened to withhold funding from the NSA for their illegal activities. Imagine that - deciding not to pay for institutional crime.
But even that toothless and wussified step (they'd just take the money from some 'Help the Babies" fund) was too manly a move for the overtly whipped Senator.
"I'm not prepared to call for the withholding of funds," he told reporters later.
Oh, so it's serious. You mean it. You just won't do anything about it.
Spectre was the Senator who had to crawl to the Junta leadership to beg for his Committee chairmanship after the 2004 election because he wasn't serious enough about destroying the constitution of the United States. And while he holds enough resentment over that to make little barky noises, there's just no bite in the man.
Just wait until an American takes over the committee - however long that may be.
Economic growth is up to about 5%, the highest since 2003. Still, many economists would tell you that it's a weaker recovery than it should have been.
Be that as it may, it is still growth. So where's my pay raise?
Gas prices are rising, as are mortgage rates. House prices in many once-hot markets have started slipping. The American automobile industry shows no sign of recovery. And the paychecks of most workers have not even kept up with inflation over the last four years.
And that's it. Economic expansion is being paid for by workers. The system, already rigged against them, has been completely re-wired to deliver any economic gains to the rich and their corporations - who are doing just fine, thank you very much.
Where before they were happy to gulp the soup with big spoons, they now just tip the whole bowl down their gullets. They don't pay anything close to their share of taxes, so it's up to the beleaguered middle class and put-upon working class to foot all the bills.
'Trickle down' economics is the massive lie that conservatives tell others - and tell themselves - for using their political and economic power to fix the game in their favour.
Gone are the days when leaders like FDR and "Give Em Hell" Harry Truman existed to help every American participate in the wealth that they themselves create. The money that our economic elites are happy to rake in and burn is the money that is created by working people who are making less now than the did five years ago.
It makes you think, again, of the Golden Years of Bubba, when the gap between rich and poor actually narrowed, taxation was (more) progressive, and the national bounty of economic blessings was a shared joy.
It's all gone horribly wrong, and it's almost too much to write about. Maybe that's why I keep typing most mornings. It's hard to believe that my American Brethren could be this savagely stupid - enough to put up with the Junta. Stupid enough to 'go along.'
Arlen Spectre is that stupid. He recognizes that the NSA wiretapping is illegal. He won't have Gonzo back because he knows - get this - that the Attorney General of the United States won't tell him anything.
"Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment," Specter said. "If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it."
Okay, the first step is to want to maintain your institutional prerogative, but how are you going to do that? He's threatened to withhold funding from the NSA for their illegal activities. Imagine that - deciding not to pay for institutional crime.
But even that toothless and wussified step (they'd just take the money from some 'Help the Babies" fund) was too manly a move for the overtly whipped Senator.
"I'm not prepared to call for the withholding of funds," he told reporters later.
Oh, so it's serious. You mean it. You just won't do anything about it.
Spectre was the Senator who had to crawl to the Junta leadership to beg for his Committee chairmanship after the 2004 election because he wasn't serious enough about destroying the constitution of the United States. And while he holds enough resentment over that to make little barky noises, there's just no bite in the man.
Just wait until an American takes over the committee - however long that may be.
posted by fiduciary at 7:49 AM
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