Monday, March 4, 2013

SAR #13063

Where's the outrage?

Be Prepared: As we enter the magical land of sequestration, just keep in mind that the deficit is falling at the fastest rate since the end of WWII. It is not rising. We are not about to drown. The sky is not falling and we do not need any of the current nonsense. It's all politics and it's all about funneling even more money to the 1%.

Cave-In:President Barack Obama, reprising his role as Br'er Rabbit, was last seen running down the street chasing John Boehner, waving cuts in Social Security and Medicare, in hopes of getting another date with The Tan One. Obama calls it “reaching out”. I call it surrendering while you're ahead. Note to self: Explain once more to the folks that Social Security does not contribute to the debt nor deficit and that Medicare needs to stop paying ridiculous prices for services. But maybe it won't matter, the Republicans don't seem to be hearing the President, even when he's surrendering.

Exceptionalism:While the government is 'sequestering' things like school lunch programs, food stamps, health services and paying the troops, APIAC wants to make sure that Congress exempts the annual $3 billion in conscience money delivered to Israel to help them keep the Palestinians in squalor and away from their native lands. Israel first, everybody else second.

Asked & Answered: The Washington Post asks “Is slow growth America's new normal?” No, slow decline is.

Unlimited Limits: If Apple does not approve of an email sent via iCloud, it simply does not deliver it. Which means they are reading and passing judgment on every email you send through their server. Just like NSA, except the NSA just takes notes and passes them along. (Okay, seems Apple stopped when they got caught. NSA didn't.)

Playbook: The sequester is not a government shutdown like previous Republican miss-judgments. The sequester's effects will be felt incrementally and in various places and for various constituencies at different times. Government grants and contracts for services will be the first to go, then layoffs and furloughs will begin as the weeks go by. There will be lots of loud hand-wringing and crocodile tears from both sides long before the nasty effects set it. But the nasty effects will set in. Some you will see in coming months, far more when you come to retire. Or not, as will more often become the case. Apply for those greeter jobs early, there's going to be a lot of competition.

Not The News: Someone who makes far too much money just noticed, “New Cars Increasingly Out of Reach for Many Americans.” Wowser, really?

A Long and Winding Road: If you think racial equality has come to the United States, you haven't been paying attention. Not to our poverty statistics. Not to the makeup of our prison population. Not to our educational achievements or lack thereof. Nor to the Supreme Court as it continues to shred any hope of equality, with Antonin Scalia in the forefront of the charge back to the early 1800's. The civil rights struggle is not over, it's slipping into reverse.

Usual Suspects: More than 30 "top economists and financial experts” say the US economy will not recover until the big, insolvent (I repeat myself) banks are broken up. How many can you name? (Note: No credit given for Krugman, Stiglitz, Reich, Dean Baker, Sheila Bain, or Bill Black. Extra credit if you cited Alan Greenspan.)

Unwelcome Truths: A group from UC Berkeley and U Toronto have concluded that "the rich behave more unethically and greedily than lower-class individuals.” Well, there goes their funding.

Goals: Don't be fooled into thinking any of this is about the philosophy of government. It is not. It is about the Republicans and the New Republicans (as the old Democratic Party has become) both serving the same master: It's about the rich vs the rest of us and the rich are winning have won.

Porn O'Graph: Down, boy.

The Parting Shot:

130304

Sequestration, old style.

7 comments:

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

re "the long and winding road" to a hypothesized future in which there is racial justice - there are some who have noticed how many black prisoners there are, and how many of them are incarcerated for supplying willing customers with psychoactive substances, and who propose policy changes to fix this

as bob dylan sang in his song about george jackson, killed in prison -

"Sometimes I think that this whole world
Is one big prison yard
Some of us are prisoners
And some of us are guards"

and, i would add, a few of us are very well paid executives and stockholders of the Very Big For-Profit Prison Corporation of America, Inc

Anonymous said...

"Your government's gangsta, so cut the crap" -- Chuck D

Anonymous said...

Exceptionalism and AIPAC:

ere is a list from 2008 of top American officials with dual Israeli-American citizenship, divided loyalties to say the least:

Attorney General – Michael Mukasey
Head of Homeland Security – Michael Chertoff
Chairman Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Richard Perle
Deputy Defense Secretary (Former) – Paul Wolfowitz
Under Secretary of Defense – Douglas Feith
National Security Council Advisor – Elliott Abrams
Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff (Former) – “Scooter” Libby
White House Deputy Chief of Staff – Joshua Bolten
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – Marc Grossman
Director of Policy Planning at the State Department – Richard Haass
U.S. Trade Representative (Cabinet-level Position) – Robert Zoellick
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – James Schlesinger
UN Representative (Former) – John Bolton
Under Secretary for Arms Control – David Wurmser
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Eliot Cohen
Senior Advisor to the President – Steve Goldsmith
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Christopher Gersten
Assistant Secretary of State – Lincoln Bloomfield
Deputy Assistant to the President – Jay Lefkowitz
White House Political Director – Ken Melman
National Security Study Group – Edward Luttwak
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Kenneth Adelman
Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst (Former) – Lawrence (Larry) Franklin
National Security Council Advisor – Robert Satloff
President Export-Import Bank U.S. – Mel Sembler
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families – Christopher Gersten
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs – Mark Weinberger
White House Speechwriter – David Frum
White House Spokesman (Former) – Ari Fleischer
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board – Henry Kissinger
Deputy Secretary of Commerce – Samuel Bodman
Under Secretary of State for Management – Bonnie Cohen
Director of Foreign Service Institute – Ruth Davis

From:
http://salonesoterica.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/dual-us-israeli-citizens-running-american-government/

Maybe someone has an updated list for the Obummah Regime.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Wow. Did not know that. Can someone update this list for say 2012?

Classof65 said...

Please read "From Time Immemorial" and you will change your position regarding the "poor Palestinians." There just ain't no such thing.

TulsaTime said...

Not any big surprise that Israel wants better treatment than american citizens, and it will be no surprise when they get it too. The surprise will come when AIPAC takes out one favor too many and the giant guilt trip screeches to a halt. Israel has turned into a racist western colony, and will consume any democratic spirit it has left as it turns into an armed military oligarchy.

Kwark said...

Re "Playbook" Look for less oversight as regulators fail to "do more with less". Better cook that pork REALLY well. Deepwater Horizon? Never happen again. In your favorite National Park or National Forest look for closed campgrounds and filthy restrooms. Assuming they're open and you can access them as more and more facilities, roads and trails are added to the maintenance "backlog"($100s of millions last time I checked). Like to hunt and fish? Better call ahead to your favorite National Wildlife Refuge, the gates may be closed. Oh, and about fighting those wildfires? Well find the money . . . eventually. No problem, life goes on. This is how austerity begins to bite. At least the Republicans haven't resurrected W's idea of selling "under-performing" National Park Service Units. . . yet (see Greece).