Monday, February 29, 2016

SAR #16060


Change is guaranteed, improvement is not.
Kinder, Gentler: While Hillary is running around promising ponies to the blacks in South Carolina, Bill Clinton's dismantling of the welfare state is entering its last lap. Starting appropriately on April Fool's Day at least 20 states will implement rules that say no single person without dependents or disabilities will be able to get food stamps for more than three months out of every three years. Can't find a job, starve. Can't find a job that will pay enough to put a roof over your head and eat, live on the street or starve. Best estimate that this will toss at least half a million people into the gutter, just so a few folks can gloat over the punishment being handed out to Them, the freeloaders. Congratulations.
Four Republican Monkeys: No to confirmation. No to a vote confirmation. No hearings no matter who the nominee is. No meetings with the nominee, not even as a courtesy. They have even put it in writing. They are so damned adamant that it seems quite possible that they are trying to convince themselves, not us.
Sowing, Reaping: For 24 years and counting the Clintons have simultaneously courted Wall Street, fleeced the American public and managed to pretend be the enemies of the former and friends of the latter. Bill's big achievements were crippling the welfare state, ending Glass-Steagall (thus letting banks gamble with your money) and passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (deregulating derivatives, like the sliced-and-diced mortgage foolishness) , and passing NAFTA and with it shipping 9 million US jobs abroad. For which they have been handsomely rewarded. Bill is worth $80 million, Hillary another $45 million – all from working for the citizens and giving speeches. Right.
Unclear On The Concept: The UK likes everything about the European Union except the part about European union.
The Quote:The senator [Bernie Sanders] is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field. I agree with him.” Charles G. Koch
Asked & Obvious: When it comes to political discussions, do facts matter? No. The misinformed, presented with objective facts, become even more entrenched in their misbegotten delusions.
Secret Sauce: To recap: Barak Obama began his presidency promising the most transparent and open administration in history and delivered the most secretive and paranoid. We'll never know what turned the suave, cosmopolitan and intelligent man with a penchant for sardonic humor into one of the most secrecy-obsessed mandarins in our history. But that he is: Whistleblowers? Jail 'em. Emails? Read 'em. Phone calls? Listen in. Citizens? Track 'em. Muslims? Drones, of course. Wall Street crooks? Pay the blackmail.
Caste Cast: If the 590,000 white men (who represent 1.2% of the 25 to 54 year old) who are institutionalized (jail, mostly) were counted as unemployed, which they are, the unemployment rate would be 6.4% not 5.0%. If the 7.7% ob black men of the same age were counted, the unemployment rate for blacks would be 19%. Black men are imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. There are more young black high school dropouts in prison than have jobs. Add in local jails, which are not included in these statistics, and things are worse, much worse. On in nine black kids has a parent in jail. There are more young black male high school dropouts are behind bars than have jobs. One in 13 black adults cannot vote because they have criminal records. They don't get jobs for the same reason, or if they do they are minimum wage and short hours. We jail so many blacks that it skews our social statistics.
Porn O'Graph: Policy statements.
A Parting Shot:
'Westron wynde, when wilt thou blow...”


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kinder, not really: It's been made clear that the vote is against a Republican winning, not for Hill/Bill. They know the score, but mime differently. They believe honesty and integrity can't win, cause it usually gets beat down in their own lives. Sanders isn't going to get their vote telling them what they already know, they don't trust the polls that say he can beat the Republicans, they do trust that Wall Street can rig the game for Hillary.


Caste Cast: Slavery isn't a form of employment, it's a form of survival.

Demetrius said...

Where is that picture? I think I know it. Watched the CNN item in their Seventies series about Watergate last night. How times change, cough cougn.

McMike said...

Re Clinton. Oh Lordy, the list of rightward/corporate lurches by Bubba is so long.

Let's start with hiring Wall Street to run the economy. Telecom dereg. War crimes/Iraq sanctions regime. Three strikes laws/war on drugs escalation. A lot of the surveillance state escalation and death of habeas corpus started with him. Not to mention ordering the crushing of the Seattle protests and other anti-union police violence.

Just to name a few....

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Demetrius. The scene: If you've been there, you remember the wind. 'Tis near the top of the Kerry Cliffs, Portmagee, Ireland.

Anonymous said...

Looking ahead to the November 2016 US presidential election, I see clear signs that Google is backing Hillary Clinton. In April 2015, Clinton hired Stephanie Hannon away from Google to be her chief technology officer and, a few months ago, Eric Schmidt, chairman of the holding company that controls Google, set up a semi-secret company – The Groundwork – for the specific purpose of putting Clinton in office. The formation of The Groundwork prompted Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, to dub Google Clinton’s ‘secret weapon’ in her quest for the US presidency.

We now estimate that Hannon’s old friends have the power to drive between 2.6 and 10.4 million votes to Clinton on election day with no one knowing that this is occurring and without leaving a paper trail. They can also help her win the nomination, of course, by influencing undecided voters during the primaries. Swing voters have always been the key to winning elections, and there has never been a more powerful, efficient or inexpensive way to sway them than SEME.

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts

Gegner said...

Kinder/Gentler: Bill & Barack is what you get when you lose control of your party. The part we should find disturbing is how this will not influence Hillary's campaign due to willful ignorance on the part of aged female voters.

No irony should be lost on the fact this demographic remains convinced Hillary can beat Trump.

kwark said...

Among my friends (statisticaly significant numbers of course) who support Hillary, almost to a person (regardless of gender), they cling to the notion that "things were better when Bill was in office" so Hillary will be a return to better times. Except they weren't and president Clinton II doesn't look to be any improvement on hubby. If she does manage to beat Trump (less than clear to me) the victory margin may be the "anyone BUT Trump" vote. . . not exactly a resounding vote of support but the victors never care about that sort of thing.

Demetrius said...

Yes, been there, back in the late 50's, I suspect it was just as windy then. Going along to one of the headlands we were sad that we could not see Boston. All the days of the Kerry dances............